McCarthy: Pelosi Could Go to a Third Article of Impeachment

Saturday on Fox News Channel’s “Justice,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) warned of a development that could clear the way for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to add a third article of impeachment against President Donald Trump.

McCarthy told host Jeanine Pirro of a ruling by the D.C. U.S. District Court of Appeals that would allow for the effort by congressional Democratic.

Partial transcript as follows:

Congressman, thanks for staying with us. Now, I want to talk about — and I’d love to stay with Iran, but I don’t have that much time.

I want to talk to you about impeachment. So Pelosi impeaches the President, so to speak. I’m not quite sure if she did or didn’t because it’s still in the House, and it hasn’t been transferred to the Senate.

So they were in a rush these Democrats. We’re going to get it done by the end of the year. We’re going to get it done by Christmas. They get it done by Christmas, and they’re slow to give it over to the Senate. What is going on? Do you know?

MCCARTHY: Well, I think Nancy Pelosi thinks she has more power than she does. Once she names the managers, it will go to the Senate.

But an interesting thing happened just yesterday in the U.S. District Court of Appeals inside D.C. Pelosi’s House Attorney, Douglas Letter made the argument before a judge that they could offer another Article of Impeachment.

This is the only thing the Democrats’ agenda is to try to impeach this President. Al Green has said it. You’ve heard it from so many other Democrats. It is their only goal of what they’re continuing to try to do. Their case is so weak.

I think part of the Speaker’s problem is she doesn’t want to show it over to the Senate, because bipartisan they’ll vote against it.

(CROSSTALK)

PIRRO: Wait, wait, OK — you’ve got to stop there. She wants to add another Article to the two Articles of Impeachment that we don’t even know if our Articles of Impeachment because they’re just in limbo right now, without a vote? She wants to add another, that’s like me —

MCCARTHY: That is an argument. That is what hurt —

PIRRO: Go ahead.

MCCARTHY: — her attorney made that argument in a Court of Appeals in D.C. yesterday before a judge when the judge questioned why are they even asking for this? It dealt with the Mueller Report because impeachment is over.

And he says, could there be another impeachment? He said, yes. Nancy Pelosi has signed off on that. We could go to a third Article of Impeachment. They have nothing else on their agenda.

While this President is taking terrorists out and making America safer. They’re trying to take the President out. They will not put America first by far.

(CROSSTALK)

PIRRO: This is outrageous. This is outrageous. OK, all right. Let’s follow this through, OK? Because this is infuriating. And it’s the first I’ve heard of it. I don’t think anybody said this so far.

So here you’ve got this woman in a rush to get impeachment. They get it done by the end of the year. Now the thing is in limbo. She goes to a court that’s like me indicting someone for petty larceny, and then saying, hey — after the grand jury voted — I’m going to indict him for murder, too, judge, let’s just throw that in there. What the heck? We don’t need an indictment (ph) — we don’t need to vote on it.

But the more important is the fact that right now, she says that she doesn’t want to send it over until she is sure it’s going to be fair in the Senate. I’ll tell you what I would do. I would tell Mitch McConnell that he ought to automatically dismiss it. There’s got to be a default. There’s got to be — if you’re entitled to a speedy trial, if you’re entitled to be able to — if there’s a statute of limitations, it’s passed.

This thing, there should be a default judgment, overdone for non- prosecution. What is McConnell waiting for?

MCCARTHY: Well, I think what McConnell is looking and seeing, and you’ve (ph) talked to all the senators over there. Here, they’re going back in session. We will be back in session next week. That is when Pelosi, the Speaker of the House, should name the managers and send it over.

She does not have a right to dictate what the Senate will do, just as the Senate didn’t have a right to dictate to the House.

In the House, she did not allow the minority to offer any witnesses. She did not give this President any procedures that we had given to Clinton and to Nixon. She changed the whole dynamic of where to go. And she forced us through the thinnest, the weakest and the fastest impeachment in the history.

She said it had to be bipartisan. And the only bipartisan vote was against impeachment.

She knows this is weak. She is showing her hand that it is weak, and when it goes into Senate, it will fail.

PIRRO: But this is crazy. Well, but why can’t the Senate dismiss it out of hand right now? If Article 1 Section 2 says the House impeaches, Article 1 Section 3 says that the Senate does the actual trial. You know what? I make a motion to dismiss. I make a motion to dismiss for non-prosecution, for failure to have a speedy trial, denial of my rights, all of that don’t even go along with this game. This is a charade. It’s a shell game.

I don’t mean to be upset with you. I am upset with Mitch McConnell.

MCCARTHY: It shows very clearly that it’s a shell game. If 51 senators —

PIRRO: Yes.

MCCARTHY: I hear you completely. And I think America is upset.

PIRRO: He is never coming on my show by the way now.

MCCARTHY: And you should be upset with Mitch McConnell. You should be upset — you should be very upset with Nancy Pelosi. Listen to what Schumer is asking. Schumer is now asking for witnesses when they would not even allow the minority to have witnesses.

They want to have Bolton. The Democrats could pull whoever they wanted. They never subpoenaed Bolton. But now they know their case is so weak. This is outrageous to the whole American public.

Here we are with so many other problems before us. We know this is going to fail in the Senate. If 51 senators got together based upon what Nancy Pelosi has done here, they could dismiss this. And I believe if —

PIRRO: Yes.

MCCARTHY: — Nancy Pelosi does not move with the managers in the next week, then I think you’ll see a movement within the Senate to do just that.

PIRRO: Well, I hope so. It should be done. It should have been done on January 1st. But what she is doing is she is holding her finger to the wind, hoping that something will increase the chances of impeachment to get a few extra senators in the Senate so that she can win.

Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor