Sen. McConnell is trying to gaslight us by saying the Republicans were the reasonable party. In his recent opinion piece, McConnell compares the impeachment of the current president to President Clinton’s impeachment.

The comparison is ludicrous. The Clinton White House cooperated with the investigation, not withholding any documents or witnesses. President Clinton had sex with an intern and lied about it. Wrong and wrong; but Mr. Trump withheld funds allocated by Congress to an ally, Ukraine, for their military in their on-going fight with Russia. He asked a foreign country to investigate a political opponent for his own personal benefit and then obstructed the investigation.

McConnell states that “Unlike the House proceedings, the Senate trial gave both sides a fair platform.” Seriously? The Senate “trial” allowed no new documents or witnesses. Even as new revelations continued to come out during the “trial,” the Republican majority would not allow those revelations to be vetted by calling witnesses and obtaining documents.  

McConnell cites the framers of our Constitution knowing that “partisan passions” could consume the House and thank goodness they knew a more “sober and stable body” (the Senate) would hold the trial. Unfortunately, the framers did not foresee a partisan Senate that would offer zero check on the president.

One paragraph that really galled me — McConnell states that the Democrats were trying to “cancel out the people’s choice in 2016.” McConnell forgets that Trump LOST the popular (aka people’s choice) vote by 3 million and the impeachment was the result of his actions as president, not candidate.  

I also loved this gem: “We declared that the Democrats cannot declare war on our governing traditions.” McConnell is the one that has declared war and is winning. From not allowing a hearing and vote on Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland to the 300-plus bills passed by the House sitting on his desk. The Republicans claim that the Democrats have only been focused on impeachment, yet 300-plus bills the House has passed, sit on the Republican’s desk.

McConnell is up for re-election this year. He has Republican primary challengers and the Democrats have a large field vying for the opportunity to challenge him in November. If you are not registered to vote, please do so by going to https://vrsws.sos.ky.gov/ovrweb/. If you are registered, please vote to send McConnell packing. He is not good for Kentucky nor the country and has earned retirement.

Julie Pease

Danville