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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Thursday slammed President Trump’s impeachment as the “most rushed, least thorough and most unfair” in modern history — and accused Democrats of being “too afraid” to send their “shoddy work” to the Senate for trial.

The Republican leader took to the Senate floor to lay into Wednesday’s historic vote, calling it the “first purely partisan presidential impeachment since the wake of the civil war.”

“The House’s conduct risks deeply damaging the institutions of American government,” McConnell insisted of the “rushed and rigged inquiry” that was “poisoned” from the outset.

“This particular House of Representatives has let its partisan rage at this particular president create a toxic new precedent that will echo well into the future,” he said.

McConnell was even harsher on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for having admitted she was unsure when — or even if — the charges would be presented to the Senate.

“Speaker Pelosi suggested that House Democrats may be too afraid to even transmit their shoddy work product to the Senate,” he said.

“Mr. President, looks like the prosecutors are getting cold feet in front of the entire country and second-guessing whether they even want to go to trial. They said that impeachment was so urgent that it couldn’t even wait for due process — but now they’re content to sit on their hands.”

“This is really comical,” McConnell added.

Noting that Pelosi had previously promised an “iron-clad case,” he said that “by the speaker’s own standards” she had “failed the country.”

He also suggested the “historically low bar” of the accusations against the president would “invite the impeachment of every future president.”

“If the Senate blesses this, if the nation accepts this, presidential impeachments might cease to be a once-in-a-generation event and become a constant part of the political background noise,” he said of a potential “endless parade of impeachable trials.”

McConnell made it clear that the Senate does not need its own lengthy hearing to reach the right conclusion to trash the two articles of impeachment, abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

“There is only one outcome that is suited to the paucity of evidence, the failed inquiry, the slapdash case, only one outcome suited to the fact that the accusations themselves are constitutionally incoherent,” he said.

“Only one outcome will preserve core precedents rather than smash them into bits in a fit of partisan rage because one party still cannot accept the American people’s choice in 2016.

“The Senate’s duty is clear. When the time comes, we must fulfill it.”

Mitch McConnellAPMitch McConnellAP
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