January 5, 2020

Lindsey Graham Just Promised to Change the Senate Rules If Democrats Don’t Hurry Up on Impeachment

Oh, and he’d like to have the trial over by the end of the month.

Susan Walsh/AP

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Senate judiciary committee chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said on Sunday that he aims to start Donald Trump’s impeachment trial “in the next coming days”—and promised to change the rules of the Senate if House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) does not send articles of impeachment by then.

“I would work with [Senate Majority Leader Mitch] McConnell to change the rules of the Senate so we can start the trial without her,” Graham told Maria Bartiromo on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures.

 

The House of Representatives approved two articles of impeachment against President Trump last month, finding the president guilty of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The House was then supposed to send the articles over to the Senate, which has sole responsibility for holding the impeachment trial.

But Pelosi has refused to send the articles to the Senate because McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) have not yet agreed on the trial’s parameters, such as how long it will take and what process it will follow. Democrats have questioned whether McConnell can set those rules impartially since he noted he’s been coordinating with the White House on its impeachment strategy.

Pelosi has downplayed any political motivations for the delay. Meanwhile, Graham called Pelosi’s refusal to send the articles over “a political stunt” and accused Pelosi of “trying to extort from the majority leader of the Senate a trial to her liking.”

Graham told Bartiromo that he plans to speak with McConnell about rule changes this week, and he’d like to have the trial over by the end of January.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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