In holding the Articles for four weeks, the Speaker just cleared out some of the top contenders in the presidential primaries, the early ones, and it's pretty clear that the candidate who stands the most to gain from their absence is former Vice President Biden.
Over these last four weeks we've been standing by… while the Democrats in the House try to come to terms with their embarrassing and inadequate investigation.
WASHINGTON – Today on the floor, U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) discussed how Speaker Pelosi’s refusal to send Articles of Impeachment to the Senate benefits Democratic Presidential Candidate Joe Biden and hurts the many Democratic U.S. Senators running for President. Excerpts of Sen. Cornyn’s floor remarks are below, and video can be found here.
“With Speaker Pelosi facing increased backlash from members of her own party, including rank-and-file Democrats, you can’t help but wonder who is winning this game that she’s playing?”
“Can you think what Senator Warren, Senator Sanders, Senator Klobuchar, Senator Bennet, and Senator Booker – until this morning – who are all vying for the chance to be president, what they’re thinking about the desirability of sitting here in the Chamber six days a week while the Iowa caucuses are coming up on February 3, the New Hampshire primary, South Carolina, Nevada, among others? The Iowa caucuses are happening just three weeks from today and New Hampshire’s primary is the week after that.”
“The longer Speaker Pelosi holds on to the articles of impeachment, the closer a trial gets to overlapping with those key dates.”
“Even a short two-week trial could mean literally dozens of events we won’t be able to go to.”
“And the only people who seem to gain anything from this are the Democrats who are running for president but who are not United States Senators, and thus aren’t going to be tied up during the impeachment trial.”
“If you’re Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, or any other candidate who isn’t a member of the Senate, you’ve got to be glad the Speaker sat on these articles for nearly four weeks. Having your competitors stuck in Washington, literally in their seat, while you’re hitting the campaign trail? Well, that seems like a pretty good advantage to me.”
“It’s remarkable that Democrats’ effort to impeach a president of the opposing party could end up having a negative impact on the presidential candidates in their own.”