"We have arrived at a standoff with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in a stare down over who will blink first on the shape and content of a Senate trial," declared Wall Street Journal editorial page editor Dan Henniger on Fox Nation's "Deep Dive."
On December 19, House Democrats confirmed speculation that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., would delay sending articles of impeachment to the Senate, potentially delaying the start of an impeachment trial in the Senate, and setting off even more speculation as to why she would do such a thing.
"I think right now, frankly, she's winging it," said Fox News contributor and Wall Street Editorial Board member Jason Riley, observing that the impeachment process has not played out the way Pelosi may have expected.
"She initially didn't want to do it, got sort of pressured into it from her more progressive members who wanted her to do this," he said.
"She thought that she'd be able to peel off some Republican support on this. That didn't happen. And went the other way," he continued, referencing the two Democratic congressmen who voted against the articles of impeachment.
"The polls have not gone the way the Democrats thought," he added, "Trump was polling in the high 30s in October. He is now in the mid 40s. ... It just hasn't gone the way they were hoping."
Additionally, Riley raised the possibility that Pelosi wants to avoid forcing the Senate Democrats who are running for president off the campaign trail ahead of the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primaries.
"I was looking up some of the details of the Clinton impeachment," said Riley. "The trial lasted five weeks. It was a pretty efficient trial as well. And the rules are that senators need to be in Washington for six days out of the week."
"To tie-up Amy Klobuchar and Corey Booker and Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, these other senators running for president for five weeks in the run-up to Iowa and New Hampshire is probably something she's having some second thoughts about," he argued.
However, Fox News contributor and Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Judith Miller disagreed, saying that Pelosi is effectively shaping public opinion in Democrat's favor ahead of any Senate proceedings.
"By withholding the impeachment, holding up the impeachment proceedings, she calls attention to Mitch McConnell's 'collusion' with the White House, which is really driving constitutionalists and strict constructionists of the Constitution crazy," she argued.
Earlier this month, McConnell, R-Ky., told Fox News’ Sean Hannity that he will be “coordinating" with the White House on their handling of an impeachment trial and saying, "There will be no difference between the president's position and our position as to how to handle this."
"I think she's betting that her narrative, which is that if Mitch McConnell is working with the president and creating a trial that's unfair," agreed Wall Street Journal columnist Mary Anastasia O'Grady, yet she said she believed that would ultimately be a losing strategy.
"All Mitch McConnell has to do is say, 'look at this line from the Constitution. This is what happens next, folks. She has to send the articles. We hold the trial.' He's got a very simple, direct message. And she has a very complicated message. I don't think she has any leverage really," said O'Grady.
"This whole idea that Mitch McConnell is expected to be some objective operator in this process is ridiculous," Riley added. "Mitch McConnell is a partisan Republican. He is expected to behave as such. His job is not to be objective. The person who needs to be objective is the person is going to oversee this trial -- that is Chief Justice John Roberts."
In conclusion, Miller stood by her assertion that Pelosi knows exactly what she is doing. "She not only has some leverage with McConnell in terms of getting the proceeding underway and over with, which is what they want. But she also drives Donald Trump nuts. ... She knows how to get under his skin. And since we are in a political proceeding that is at its core political, this has that added beneficial effect from her standpoint."
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