As the House moved to impeach President Trump’s for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, attention quickly turned to the Senate, where Republican Leader Mitch McConnell will oversee historic proceedings on Trump’s potential removal from office. The charges put forward are serious, the facts largely uncontested.

The flailing narratives put forth by Republicans, however, reek of desperation and obfuscation. Attempts to ignore, deflect, and defend Trump’s systemic abuse of power by the GOP thus far have been galling by any measure, but Sen. McConnell has indicated things are about to get much worse.

In a jaw-dropping interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News, McConnell baldly admitted that the President stood “zero chance” of being removed from office and that Senate Republicans would work in “total coordination” with the White House on the trial’s proceedings – a stunning admission of impropriety, even by the GOP’s abominable standards.

True, impeachment requires the judgement of political figures, but the seriousness of a formal trial before the full Senate demands a sober, somber examination of the facts, not a predetermined acquittal by political cronies serving an audience of one. If an ordinary citizen were called for jury duty and notified the judge – in advance – that she would work in total coordination with the defense before hearing any evidence, she would be rightly ridiculed and dismissed. McConnell should be held to the same standard.

Demand that Mitch McConnell recuse himself from the impeachment trial of President Trump for undermining due process and his craven promise of partiality. History is watching, and democracy is at stake.

As the House moved to impeach President Trump’s for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, attention quickly turned to the Senate, where Republican Leader Mitch McConnell will oversee historic proceedings on Trump’s potential removal from office. The charges put forward are serious, the facts largely uncontested.

The flailing narratives put forth by Republicans, however, reek of desperation and obfuscation. Attempts to ignore, deflect, and defend Trump’s systemic abuse of power by the GOP thus far have been galling by any measure, but Sen. McConnell has indicated things are about to get much worse.

In a jaw-dropping interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News, McConnell baldly admitted that the President stood “zero chance” of being removed from office and that Senate Republicans would work in “total coordination” with the White House on the trial’s proceedings – a stunning admission of impropriety, even by the GOP’s abominable standards.

True, impeachment requires the judgement of political figures, but the seriousness of a formal trial before the full Senate demands a sober, somber examination of the facts, not a predetermined acquittal by political cronies serving an audience of one. If an ordinary citizen were called for jury duty and notified the judge – in advance – that she would work in total coordination with the defense before hearing any evidence, she would be rightly ridiculed and dismissed. McConnell should be held to the same standard.

Demand that Mitch McConnell recuse himself from the impeachment trial of President Trump for undermining due process and his craven promise of partiality. History is watching, and democracy is at stake.

As the House moved to impeach President Trump’s for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, attention quickly turned to the Senate, where Republican Leader Mitch McConnell will oversee historic proceedings on Trump’s potential removal from office. The charges put forward are serious, the facts largely uncontested.

The flailing narratives put forth by Republicans, however, reek of desperation and obfuscation. Attempts to ignore, deflect, and defend Trump’s systemic abuse of power by the GOP thus far have been galling by any measure, but Sen. McConnell has indicated things are about to get much worse.

In a jaw-dropping interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News, McConnell baldly admitted that the President stood “zero chance” of being removed from office and that Senate Republicans would work in “total coordination” with the White House on the trial’s proceedings – a stunning admission of impropriety, even by the GOP’s abominable standards.

True, impeachment requires the judgement of political figures, but the seriousness of a formal trial before the full Senate demands a sober, somber examination of the facts, not a predetermined acquittal by political cronies serving an audience of one. If an ordinary citizen were called for jury duty and notified the judge – in advance – that she would work in total coordination with the defense before hearing any evidence, she would be rightly ridiculed and dismissed. McConnell should be held to the same standard.

Demand that Mitch McConnell recuse himself from the impeachment trial of President Trump for undermining due process and his craven promise of partiality. History is watching, and democracy is at stake.

We’ve come to expect hyperbolic falsehoods and moral turpitude from President Trump when it comes to his, uh, let’s call it governing style, so it’s no surprise how he’s handling his Ukraine bribery scandal now engulfing him.

The president has clearly adopted a zero-sum endgame approach, scorching any semblance of decorum with baseless, broadside character attacks, baseless conspiratorial musings, and general obfuscation of established facts. What’s truly shocking and potentially more damaging to the republic is the weak-kneed fealty of the GOP establishment in this dangerous, destabilizing game.

True, there are outliers in the Republican midst like Sen. Mitt Romney who aren’t willing to feebly fall in line, but the overwhelming majority of elected GOP officials are incredulously toeing the poorly drawn Trump line on Ukraine, repeating and retweeting widely discredited talking points and conspiracy theories so outlandish that Vladimir Putin expressed thanks to Republicans for spreading his propaganda.

The US intelligence community confirms that the absurd argument that Ukraine is to blame for 2016 election meddling originated in Russia. And yet, the GOP persists, harming American interests and emboldening the very adversary that attacked our democracy in 2016 and plans to do the same in 2020.

The ongoing impeachment inquiry, which has been handled with sterling precision and focus thus far, is the constitutionally mandated safeguard for just such a moment. We must insist that our elected officials stop playing politics with a very real constitutional crisis. We have a rogue presidency hopelessly careening off the rails; now is the time for Congress to rise to the occasion.

Demand Republicans Members of Congress stop harming U.S. interests and repeating dangerous Putin propaganda for short-term political gain.