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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Democrat-controlled U.S. House of Representatives will file an impeachment charge against former President Donald Trump in the Senate on Monday, rejecting Senate Republican Minority Leader Mitch’s request for postponement. McConnell.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who ousted McConnell as House Leader after Democrats won two runoff elections in Georgia this month, announced the measure in the Senate on Friday.
Schumer did not say when Trump’s second impeachment trial would begin. But he stressed the need to move quickly on the confirmation of the cabinet of President Joe Biden and other key administration officials.
“The House will deliver the impeachment article to the Senate. The Senate will hold a trial on the impeachment of Donald Trump. It will be a full trial. It will be a fair trial,” Schumer said.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, confirmed the plan in a statement.
White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters that the Senate should be able to move forward with both the trial and Biden’s agenda, beginning with his request for $ 1.9 trillion in new COVID-19 assistance for the Americans and the American economy.
“What cannot be delayed with this process is your proposal to bring relief to the American people at this time of crisis,” Psaki told reporters.
Schumer’s comments came the morning after McConnell asked the House to postpone sending the charges until next Thursday, and asked Schumer to postpone the trial until mid-February to give Trump more time to prepare a defense. against the charge that he incited an insurrection on his part. supporters who stormed the Capitol on January 6.
“This impeachment began with an unprecedented and minimal process in the House,” McConnell said Friday. “The aftermath cannot be an insufficient Senate process that denies former President Trump his due process or harms the Senate or the presidency itself.”
Senate rules require impeachment to begin at 1 pm the day after the articles of impeachment are delivered to the upper legislative chamber of Congress, except Sundays.
But Senator Richard Durbin, the second Senate Democrat, told MSNBC that lawmakers would “sit down and plan this as best we could, using every minute available.”
The moves come as Schumer and McConnell are battling to assert control in a 50-50 chamber where Democrats have a slim majority thanks to Vice President Kamala Harris’ tiebreaker vote.
“I can’t imagine that both McConnell and Schumer wouldn’t want to have a little more structure here, and in particular Schumer, allow a little more time to move forward with Biden’s early decisions before they get caught up in the trial,” Republican said. . Senator Roy Blunt told reporters.
FILIBUSTER FIGHT
McConnell has insisted that Democrats provide a guarantee that they will not end legislative obstructionism, which gives the Republican minority the power to block legislation pushed by the new Biden administration.
Schumer rejected McConnell’s lawsuit on Friday, calling it an “unacceptable proposal.”
McConnell refused to budge, saying that maintaining the 60-vote filibuster threshold to promote most of the legislation was a lynchpin for the power-sharing agreement crafted in 2001, the last time the Senate was split 50-50.
Trump became the first president in U.S. history to be indicted twice last week, and when the Senate meets for his trial he will be the first president to be tried after leaving office, for his alleged role in urging his supporters to storm the Capitol in an attack that left five dead.
Ten House Republicans joined Democrats on January 13 to impeach him. It would take the support of at least 17 Senate Republicans to convict him; then a separate vote would be needed to ban him from running again.
Such a vote could indicate that high-ranking Republicans were eager to remove Trump as the de facto leader of their party; has said that he may seek to apply again in 2024.
Trump’s fate ultimately could rest with McConnell, whose position is likely to influence other Republican lawmakers. The Kentucky Republican said this week that the mob was “fed with lies” and “provoked by the president and other powerful people.”
(Information from David Morgan and Richard Cowan; additional information from Doina Chiacu and Lisa Lambert; edited by Scott Malone and Alistair Bell)
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