WASHINGTON (AP) – The process of impeaching President Donald Trump will likely begin after Joe Biden’s inauguration, and Republican leader Mitch McConnell tells senators that their decision to condemn the outgoing president for the uprising at the Capitol will be a “vote of conscience.”
The timing for the trial, the first of a president to retire, has not yet been set. But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made it clear on Friday that Democrats plan to move quickly to COVID’s $ 1.9 trillion COVID package and $ 1.9 trillion economic recovery. to speed up vaccinations and send Americans help. Biden will take the oath of office on Wednesday.
Pelosi called the recovery package a “matter of absolute urgency”.
The uncertainty of the schedule, despite Trump’s swift impeachment by the House just a week after the deadly January 6 siege, reflects the fact that Democrats do not want the Senate trial to dominate the opening days of the Biden administration.
With security alert to the threat of more potential violence On the way to inauguration, the Senate is also rapidly preparing to confirm Biden’s nominee for National Intelligence Director, Avril Haines. A committee hearing is scheduled for the day before the inauguration, indicating that a confirmation vote to install her in the position could come soon once the new president takes office.
Many Democrats have pushed for an immediate impeachment trial to hold Trump accountable and prevent him from taking up future office, and the proceedings could begin on inauguration day. But others have pushed for a slower pace, as the Senate considers nominees from Biden’s cabinet and the new Democrat-led congressional priorities consider the coronavirus plan.
Biden’s new White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Friday that the Senate can do both.
“The Senate can fulfill its constitutional duty while continuing to run the people’s affairs,” she said.
Psaki noted that during the first impeachment trial last year, the Senate continued to hold hearings every day. “There is precedent,” she said.
Trump is the only president to have been impeached twice, and the first to be prosecuted for leaving the White House, an increasingly extraordinary end to the defeated president’s tenure. He was first impeached by the House in 2019 for his dealings with Ukraine, but the Senate voted to be acquitted in 2020.
When his second trial begins, House impeachment executives say they will argue that Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric hours before the bloody assault on the Capitol was not isolated, but rather part of an escalating campaign to reverse the November election. It culminated, they will argue, in the Republican president’s cry of protest to “fight like hell,” as Congress summed up the electoral college votes to confirm he had lost to Biden.
For Republican senators, the trial may be a final test of their loyalty to the defeated president and his legions of supporters in their home countries, and their own experiences of shelter in the Capitol as a pro-Trump mob ransacked the building and tried to overturn Biden’s election. to make. It will force a further re-evaluation of their relationship with the defeated president, who lost not only the White House but majority control of the Senate.
“These men weren’t drunkards getting rowdy – they were terrorists attacking this country’s constitutionally mandated transfer of power,” Senator Ben Sasse, R-Neb., Said in a statement Friday.
“They failed, but they were dangerously close to the start of a bloody constitutional crisis. They should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. “
McConnell, who has spoken to senators and donors in recent days, tells them that the decision whether or not to condemn Trump is theirs alone – meaning the leadership team will not work to somehow get senators in line. to keep.
Last week’s attack angered lawmakers, stunned the nation and showed disturbing images around the world, the most serious breach of the Capitol since the War of 1812, and the worst by homegrown invaders.
Pelosi told reporters on Friday that the nine House Impeachment managers, who act as prosecutors for the House, are working to bring the case to justice.
“The only way to reunite this broken and divided country is to shine a light on the truth,” said Representative Madeleine Dean, D-Pa., Who will serve as impeachment manager.
Trump was impeached by the House on Wednesday on the single charge, inciting insurgency, in a lightning-fast procedure just a week after the siege. Ten Republicans joined all Democrats in vote 232-197 to impeach, the most bipartisan modern presidential impeachment.
McConnell is open to considering impeachment after telling his associates he is done with Trump, but has not stated how he would vote. McConnell continues to wield power in his party, even though calling the trial next week could be one of his last acts as a majority leader, as Democrats prepare to take control of the Senate with the seat of two new Democratic senators from Georgia.
No president has ever been convicted in the Senate, and it would take a two-thirds of the votes against Trump, an extremely high hurdle. But Trump’s belief is not beyond the reach of the possibility, especially as corporations and wealthy political donors are distancing themselves from his kind of politics and holding back the Republicans who tried to reverse the election.
Senator Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said Thursday, “Such unlawful actions cannot be without consequences.” She said in a statement that the House responded “appropriately” with impeachment and will consider the arguments of the trial.
At least four Republican senators have publicly expressed concern about Trump’s actions, but others have expressed a preference to move forward. Senator Tom Cotton, R-Ark., Has issued a statement saying he opposes impeachment of a president who has left office. South Carolina Trump ally Lindsey Graham is building support for launching a committee to investigate the siege as an alternative to sentencing.
The riot delayed the electoral college’s vote, which was the final step in wrapping up Biden’s victory as lawmakers fled to shelter and police with guns drawn, barricading the doors to the House room.
A Capitol Police officer died of injuries sustained in the attack, and the police shot and killed a woman. Three other people died in medical emergencies.
___
Associated Press authors Will Weissert, Kevin Freking, Andrew Taylor, Alan Fram, Zeke Miller and Jonathan Lemire contributed to this report.