Projecting Democrats Are the Ones Abusing Power [OPINION]

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is not only demanding that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell introduce rules for the Trump impeachment trial that she'd prefer to see available, she implied that McConnell may also be a Russian agent.

Yup, she went there.

Maybe she can see to another Mueller investigation? Because that went so well for the Democrats last July.

If the speaker wanted a completely fair trial in the Senate, perhaps she should have negotiated with McConnell before her sham process directed in the House Intelligence and Judiciary Committees concluded, when they ran their Soviet-esque hearings.

Follow the timeline of the impeachment to better understand what I mean.

May 9, 2019: Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani announced his desire to travel to Ukraine to encourage the Ukrainian government to re-open investigations into Hunter Biden's activity there with regards to a gas company called Burisma, whose CEO was suspected of many wrongdoings. Left-wing (mainstream) media criticized his plans and he canceled the trip but promised to continue to lobby for this.

July 24, 2019: Robert Mueller appeared before the House Judiciary Panel, whose Chair, Congressman Jerry Nadler (D-New York), presided. In an epic letdown for those anticipating criminal collusion charges against President Trump, Mueller exonerated him and anyone in either his campaign or administration of any Russian collusion.

July 25, 2019: President Trump made a phone call to Ukrainian President Zelensky, in which he asked Zelensky to announce the reopening of several closed investigations, one which includes the activity of the Bidens, adding "if it's possible" and "if you can." Ukraine had been granted some $400 million in military and other aid to bolster their defenses against Russian aggression.

July 26, 2019: A whistleblower, likely to have been Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a naturalized Ukrainian-American, is alleged to have contacted former National Security Council member Eric Ciaramella to describe what he saw as an inappropriate request from Trump to Zelensky, while the military aid had yet to be delivered.

Ciaramella is a Joe Biden supporter and whose history includes him to have personally orchestrated Ukrainian prosecutor training seminars in Washington, and who traveled to Ukraine with then-Vice President Biden several times aboard Air Force II.

Like Vindman, Ciaramella served in the White House Situation Room. Part of his duties was to listen to such calls made by the president. He began there during the Obama Administration and continued into Trump's but was released in 2017, suspected of leaking information to the press. It is believed that on this day, Ciaramella then told his former colleague in the NSC's White House Situation Room detail, Sean Misko, of Vindman's concerns with the Trump-Zelensky call.

Why did Ciaramella tell Misko, you ask? Because in a huge "coincidence," Misko just got up and left his CIA career and joined the House Judiciary staff, chaired by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-California) hired on the same day, July 26, 2019.

October 31, 2019: So while the Mueller investigation flopped, the Democratic machine began its plot to use President Trump's call to Zelensky as the premise for impeachment, something the Democrats promised their base even before President-elect Trump took the oath of office.

One of the more concerning maneuvers that didn't get enough light was out of the House Rules Committee, chaired by Jim McGovern (D-Massachusetts). This was key. McGovern introduced Rule 660, which made the Rule IX, Clause 2 (j) (1) go from a guaranteed right for the minority party (Republicans) to introduce their own witnesses for one day in any House hearing, before the chair gavels the hearing closed, to a decision that the chairman could make to deny as he or she sees fit.

It only pertained to the particular House committees that were overseeing the Trump impeachment: Intelligence, Judiciary, Ways and Means, Financial Services, Foreign Affairs, and Oversight and Reform. It was voted on and passed strictly down party lines – less than three weeks before the impeachment hearings were to begin.

President Trump was denied due process with this outrage and to this day, the media whistles past the graveyard, refusing to point to how badly this harmed Trump's case before the House voted on impeachment. Rule IX, Cause II (j) (1) has been a standing law since 1970:

Calling and questioning of witnesses

(j)(1) Whenever a hearing is conducted by a committee on a measure or matter, the minority members of the committee shall be entitled, upon request to the chair by a majority of them before the completion of the hearing, to call witnesses selected by the minority to testify with respect to that measure or matter during at least one day of hearing thereon.

In order to maximize the impeachment odds, the Democrats nuked House minority ranking members from allowing the American people to hear any and all exculpatory testimony – a complete sham process considering the timing and the targeting of committees looking to take Trump out.

A sham that Speaker Pelosi is continuing. Pelosi characterized the impeachment hearings as being "urgent," which somehow justified the speedy and suspect vote last December to impeach President Trump with bi-partisan opposition and strictly Democratic votes to impeach.

While the two articles of impeachment that passed – Obstruction of Congress and Abuse of Power – were not the charges declared at the beginning of the Intelligence hearing, they were by the end of the Intel and Judiciary.

Rule 660 also calls for each of the six committees in the House to continue their investigations on the president. This is another clever but devious way of implementing unfair and abusive power by Democrats.

After a hyper-fast House hearing process due to the nature of "urgency," Pelosi continues to slowly drip out alleged evidence of wrongdoing by President Trump which was not introduced in the House hearings, but only while she holds the two articles of impeachment from the Senate, somehow going on a month now.

This allows the Democratic arm in the media to define for the American people how to view this new information without Republicans like Congressmen Jim Jacobs, Devin Nunes, John Radcliffe and others cross-examining and vetting this information officially.

As the Senate trial over the Trump impeachment approaches, I hope Republican Sen. McConnell is equally as fair and just to the minority party in the Senate as Speaker Pelosi was to the minority in the House.

Ken Pittman is the host of The Ken Pittman Show on 1420 WBSM New Bedford. He can be heard Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon. Contact him at ken.pittman@townsquaremedia.com. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.