Jake Sherman is no fan of Republicans in general or of President Trump in particular. He's the author of an unflattering book about the Trump White House, and described as casting Mitch McConnell's handling of the Kavanaugh confirmation as "merciless" and "Machiavellian."
So it was surprising to hear Sherman, on today's Morning Joe, express support for the notion of McConnell initiating a Senate trial even if Nancy Pelosi hasn't delivered the articles of impeachment. Sherman didn't merely report that it is "a very real possibility" that the Senate would conduct a trial in such a situation, and that the Republicans "would be well within their rights, in their mind."
But he also expressed support for the GOP position, saying that if Pelosi held onto the articles until getting what she wanted, she would be "subvert[ing] the will of the House of Representatives . . . That's not a sustainable proposition."
Sherman's statement could be seen as further evidence that impeachment is backfiring on the Democrats, who have backed themselves into an untenable corner.
Note: the original version of this item indicated that Sherman's book itself described McConnell's handling of the Kavanaugh confirmation as "merciless" and "Machiavellian." In fact, those words come from Amazon.com's description of the book. We regret the error.
Here's the transcript.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
1/2/20
7:16 am ETJOE SCARBOROUGH: So, Jake, are you hearing from the Majority Leader’s office that that is in fact a possibility, for him to bring up impeachment to the Senate and let them begin the trial even if Nancy Pelosi doesn’t send anything over?
JAKE SHERMAN: It is definitely a possibility, a very real possibility. I think that the Senate Republicans are not going to wait forever. And there does — there will be some issues if Pelosi continues to hold on to the articles, because they are a process of a constitutional prerogative that the House has. So she does run into some procedural issues by holding onto them, because the House has voted to impeach. She can't just say, I’m going to subvert the will of the House of Representatives until I get something that I want. That's not a sustainable proposition But yes -- they [the Republicans] are going dispense with this issue one way or the other, according to my sources, and would be well within their rights, in their mind, to do that. They’re not going let this drag on for six or eight months until there’s some sort of brokered rule package that everybody in Congress likes.
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