Rep. Kildee: Pelosi ‘Making the Right Decision’ on Withholding Impeachment Articles

Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Mich.) speaks at a press conference in Washington in 2016. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

House Democratic Chief Deputy Whip Dan Kildee (D-Mich.) expressed support for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) tactic to delay sending articles of impeachment to the Senate.

Kildee told CNN on Thursday that Pelosi is “making the right decision” before claiming that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) “needs to stop playing games” so the House can “move forward.”

“On the question whether I support her, she’s making the right decision,” Kildee told CNN. “The House of Representatives is not absent from the Senate trial. We’re not sort of bystanders to it. We have to appoint impeachment managers, and organize the case around the structure that the Senate arrives at in order to present our case in the most compelling way. Determining who the impeachment managers, in part, is going to be determined by how the Senate organizes the trial.”

Kildee then echoed a claim from a member of his caucus in saying that McConnell has to “conduct a trial in an open and dignified and fair fashion.”

Meanwhile, Congress is on its Christmas break, he noted in the CNN interview, adding that “this trial wasn’t going to take place until some time in January anyway. We have time to get it right. I’m one that I don’t think we should wait forever.”

“But the onus, really, the responsibility lies with Senator McConnell to stop being so obtuse and get about the business of organizing this trial, sit down with Senator [Chuck] Schumer, come to some agreement and move forward,” he said.

Some Democrats, including House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), suggested that articles of impeachment might be placed on hold indefinitely.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) speaks to media at the Capitol in Washington on Dec. 19, 2019. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

When he was asked during an appearance on Fox News’ “Cavuto Live” on Dec. 21 about why Pelosi hasn’t sent over the articles, Clyburn responded that his caucus doesn’t know the process in the Senate.

“Because we don’t know whether we should send two managers or 22 managers,” he said. “If we knew what the process was, we would know what to do. We do not have a process.”

“It looks very good to me and to my constituents. What Nancy Pelosi’s doing is demonstrating once again that we are a country of laws, not of men or women. And in this instance, one man.”

McConnell and Schumer (D-N.Y.) are at odds about whether the trial in the Senate should include witnesses, although McConnell has stated his caucus hasn’t yet ruled out the possibility.

“We haven’t ruled out witnesses,” McConnell said on “Fox & Friends” on Monday. “We’ve said, ‘Let’s handle this case just like we did with President Clinton.’ Fair is fair.”