Impeachment next steps: Senators ponder how to recover
CNNCNN — Majority Leader Mitch McConnell cracked a joke during a Tuesday lunch with his Republican colleagues that the previous two weeks had been like a family vacation that had gone on too long. Still, GOP Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota said McConnell’s message Tuesday afternoon – just one day before the President would be acquitted – was that a real break from Washington may help to begin repairing the relationships that had been tested. Asked where the Senate needed to go from this moment on, Sen. Richard Burr, a North Carolina Republican and the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, piped in to a group of reporters: “Home.” The President was acquitted and all but one Republican member followed McConnell’s lead. “It’s an election season I get that and that will be spirited too, but I think both sides have things to get done they want to take to the voters.” Republicans and Democrats said the State of the Union – before the President refused to shake Pelosi’s hand and Pelosi tore up the President’s speech – had provided a brief respite of what could be accomplished in the wake of impeachment. “My guess is there is less angst in Washington, DC, than there is in the rest of the country because we’ve all known where this was going.” In fact, many members CNN spoke with pointed out that impeachment – while trying – had been less toxic than the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.