HOUSE FORMALIZES IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY IN PARTY-LINE VOTE:
Meanwhile, the GOP Senate majority has warned that the resolution is a non-starter in the upper chamber.
“They have denied President Trump basic due process and are cutting his counsel out of the process in an unprecedented way. House Democrats’ new resolution does not change any of that,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Wednesday. “The draft resolution that has been released does nothing of the sort. It falls way short, way short.”
The Trump campaign immediately slammed the resolution, calling it an “attempt to remove a duly-elected president for strictly political reasons” and adding that “voters will punish Democrats who support this farce.”
As Rick Moran adds at the PJ mothership, “If you’re going to overturn the election of a president, you would think that you’d want a few brave souls from the opposition to at least give the appearance of bi-partisanship. Democrats are realizing that this simply isn’t going to happen and it calls into question the legitimacy of their entire inquiry… Democrats don’t think they’ll be hurt much by the partisan appearance of their inquiry. It will certainly please the hysterical, anti-Trump vote — the real power in the party. They don’t care what impeachment looks like, they just want it done. That may well be their undoing.”
Trump himself tweeted in response, “The Greatest Witch Hunt In American History!”
UPDATE: Byron York dubs today’s vote “The Adam Schiff Empowerment Act:” “‘There’s no guarantee we can call any witnesses,’ said Republican Rep. Brad Wenstrup, a member of the Intelligence Committee, in an interview Wednesday. ‘The rules the Democrats rammed through simply confirm the absolute control Schiff has been exercising this entire time,’ Nunes said. ‘He shouldn’t be involved in impeachment at all since none of this has any intelligence component, but Pelosi obviously thinks Nadler is incompetent.’”
MORE: We’re putting the band back together! “Striking that in House Rules Committee meeting on impeachment inquiry resolution, No. 2 Democrat, Rep. Alcee Hastings, has actually been impeached. (Was federal judge, impeached, convicted, and removed for bribery in 1989.)”