House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has yet to say when she will send a proposal to impeach President Trump to the Senate, where bipartisan leaders have already begun to battle over the impeachment of the president.
Asked Wednesday (Jan. 13) whether she would send the impeachment proposal to the Senate on Wednesday, Pelosi responded, “I’m not going to make that announcement right now.
The U.S. House of Representatives voted largely along party lines Wednesday, passing the impeachment bill by a vote of 232 to 197. All Democratic House members voted in favor of impeachment, as did 10 Republican House members, but the vast majority of Republican House members opposed impeachment.
Trump has become the only president ever to be impeached twice by a House proposal, and the latest changes to the bipartisan leadership in Congress and the Senate landscape underscore that the future of Trump’s impeachment remains unclear.
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The articles of impeachment passed by the House on Wednesday said President Trump committed “serious crimes and misdemeanors” by inciting a mob to attack the Capitol on Jan. 6. The articles of impeachment, which passed the House for the first time in 2019, accuse President Trump of “high crimes and misdemeanors” for pressuring the Ukrainian president to investigate Democratic candidate Joe Biden.
The term “serious crimes and misdemeanors” is a common-law term for crimes invoked by the British Parliament in removing royal officials; it means that a high-ranking government official has abused his or her power, but such conduct does not necessarily violate ordinary criminal statutes – it is distinct from what is generally known as a “felony” in U.S. law.
Mystery surrounds Pelosi’s submission of impeachment to the Senate
Pelosi’s chief deputy, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), said publicly Wednesday that “the speaker of the house is communicating with (Senate Minority Leader) Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), and (they) will decide that.”
But he added in a whirlwind, “I personally am urging them to send it through as soon as possible.”
When the House first passed two articles of impeachment against President Trump in late 2019, Pelosi delayed for four weeks before sending them to the Senate. When pressed on when she would send the articles of impeachment to the Senate, she responded with a no comment.
She explained that she did so because she wanted the Senate to give the president a “fair trial” with witnesses present.
Pelosi’s delay even angered some senior Democrats, with Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) criticizing Pelosi for undermining the urgency of impeachment. The Senate ultimately did not call witnesses either.
Senate expected to schedule impeachment trial after Biden’s inauguration
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Wednesday that a second impeachment trial against President Trump would wait until after the new president, Joe Biden, is sworn in on the 20th.
“Given the rules, procedures and Senate precedent governing presidential impeachment hearings, it is simply unlikely that fair or serious consideration will be completed before President-elect Biden is sworn in next week. The Senate has already held three presidential impeachment hearings. They lasted 83 days, 37 days and 21 days, respectively.” McConnell said in a statement.
“Even if the Senate process begins this week and moves forward quickly, the final verdict will not be rendered until after President Trump leaves office. That’s not a decision I made, it’s a fact.”
He also mentioned that President-elect Biden himself said last week that “his inauguration on Jan. 20 is the ‘fastest’ way to change the presidency.”
And Senate Minority Leader Schumer issued a statement after the House impeachment vote on Wednesday, vowing to continue deliberations on Trump’s impeachment and asking the Senate to hold a vote to bar Trump from running for president again in the future.
“The president of the United States (Trump) has incited a mob to violence against the legitimately elected government of the United States in a vicious, depraved and desperate attempt to remain in power.” Schumer said.
Schumer said that if McConnell agrees to call an emergency session now, the Senate could immediately hold a trial on impeachment or it could wait until after the 19th to begin.
Schumer emphasized, “But make no mistake, the U.S. Senate will conduct the impeachment hearings.”
Although several Republican senators have called for Trump to no longer be eligible for impeachment after Biden took over the presidency, so far no leader of either party has said that he will not receive an impeachment case against Trump.
If Trump is convicted in the Senate trial, it could result in Trump being barred from ever holding any U.S. government office again in the future, including running for president.
Schumer turns de facto majority leader during impeachment trial
Later in January, after Georgia’s two newly elected Democratic senators, Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, are sworn in, the Senate will become a 50-50 bipartisan tie, with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, as Senate president, likely to cast the most central vote on key proposals.
In other words, Schumer will be the de facto majority leader of the Senate during the impeachment hearings.
The Senate is currently scheduled to resume on January 19, the day before Biden’s swearing-in (20th), and without unanimous consent from members of both parties, it is unlikely that the Senate will do anything during the interim session on Friday the 19th – given the high level of Republican approval of Trump in the Senate and the House vote, it is unlikely that the articles of impeachment will pass the Senate unopposed on the 19th.
While there are no clear numbers on how many Republican senators would agree with Trump’s impeachment charges. But based on the full House vote and the new Senate landscape, the likelihood of getting one-third of Senate Republican lawmakers to vote in favor remains slim, and the likelihood of an eventual conviction of President Trump is extremely low.
Biden refuses to take a position on the impeachment case. The Senate is expected to delay the certification of new government officials.
Impeachment would also mean a delay in the Senate’s ability to consider other priorities, such as the certification of Biden’s cabinet, senior officials and other nominees, which is expected to be delayed.
So far, there is no indication that President-elect Biden will urge Speaker Pelosi or Senate Democratic Leader Schumer to withdraw the articles of impeachment against President Trump.
Biden himself has avoided publicly commenting on Trump’s impeachment. He said this week that he will leave that to congressional leaders as he focuses on legislative priorities and getting his Cabinet confirmed.
He told the press that he has reached out to senators about the possibility of dividing time between legislation or nominations and impeachment trials, but the Senate did not do so during Trump’s first impeachment trial or during Clinton’s impeachment trial.
“I hope the Senate leadership can find a way to deal with other urgent matters in this country while also addressing their constitutional responsibilities on the impeachment issue,” Biden said in a statement Wednesday.
Impeachment process for president
Under Senate rules, as soon as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sends articles of impeachment to the Senate, the Senate must essentially stop everything it is doing and hold an impeachment trial against President Trump.
After the Senate receives the House’s formal articles of impeachment, the House will select House representatives (managers) to attend the Senate impeachment hearings, expected to be chosen from either the Judiciary Committee, which is responsible for the articles of impeachment, or the Intelligence Committee, which is leading the impeachment investigation.
Chief Justice John Roberts will preside over the impeachment hearings.
During the trial, representatives of the House of Representatives will be selected to bring the case against President Trump, while President Trump’s legal team will argue the case and senators will serve as jurors. The entire impeachment process will be lengthy, with six days a week and six weeks of defense and trial scheduled.
According to the Constitution, a two-thirds vote of the Senate is required to decide whether to impeach or not.
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