Nancy Pelosi still holds all the impeachment cards

| 9:09 am EST January 18, 2020
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The Republican Senate is still trying to figure out how to handle Donald Trump’s impeachment trial. At least some Republican Senators are clearly concerned that if they don’t call any witnesses and run a sham trial, voters will punish them for it when they’re up for reelection. With all the posturing going on, it’s still far from clear whether there will in fact be witnesses.

Here’s the thing, though. It may not even matter. Let’s say that the Republican Senators decide they do need to cover their own backsides by calling witnesses like Lev Parnas and John Bolton to testify at the trial, even if their testimony does end up hurting Donald Trump. That would be the most straightforward and ideal outcome. But if they don’t call any witnesses, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi still holds all the cards.

Pelosi only brought two articles of impeachment when she could have easily brought more. If she thinks the Senate trial is being handled in a dishonest manner, she can open new House impeachment hearings on additional articles of impeachment, and have people like Bolton and Parnas publicly testify during those hearings. If she wants to, she can even hold those hearings at the same time the sham Senate trial is going on.

Of course we don’t know what Nancy Pelosi will do with any of this. But that’s the point, because it means Republican Senators don’t know what she’s going to do either. Not only are they being forced to blindly guess whether they’re better off calling or not calling witnesses, they’re also being forced to guess what Pelosi will do in response to whatever path they commit themselves to. Pelosi still has to figure out how to play her cards right – but she’s the only one holding any cards.