Mitch McConnell describes what a second Trump impeachment trial might look like

With President Donald Trump’s likely second impeachment approaching, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell circled a memo to Republican Party senators on Friday detailing the timetable for a possible impeachment trial.

Any impeachment process would start in the House of Representatives, but if the House voted for impeachment, as it probably would because of its Democratic majority, the suit would then be referred to the Senate for trial.

According to the memo, which was obtained by the Washington Post, an impeachment trial in the Senate would probably start no earlier than the following week, on January 19 (a Tuesday) – meaning that a trial may coincide with the investor’s inauguration. President-elect Joe Biden on January 20, and conclude only after Trump is no longer president.

The reason for the delay, according to the memo, is that the Chamber is currently in recess – and that recess cannot be concluded earlier without the Senate’s unanimous consent.

Such an early return is entirely unlikely, as it would require all 100 senators – including those loyal to Trump like Sens. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley, who followed their plan on Wednesday to object to Biden voters, even after a pro-Trump crowd invaded the U.S. Capitol – agreeing to resume the regular session early.

The memo also notes that it is not “clear” whether court president John Roberts – who is constitutionally required to preside over a president’s impeachment trial in the Senate – would still be required to do so after Trump is out of office.

However, while some of the exact rules are unclear, in general, there is nothing to stop the trial from proceeding as soon as Trump leaves office, and as Ian Millhiser of Vox explained, the conviction may still prevent him from taking office. elected again.

Once the impeachment process is completed in the House, according to McConnell’s memo, the House’s impeachment administrators would have the opportunity to present impeachment articles on the scheduled return date to the Senate – January 19 – or the next day . At 1 pm the day after the articles are shared with the Senate, senators must formally begin their trial (in accordance with the House’s impeachment rules), followed by an eventual vote to condemn or acquit after all arguments have been heard.

Starting on Saturday, it looks like the McConnell memo will become relevant in no time. House Democrats are due to present an impeachment article as early as Monday, and the process is expected to move quickly from there.

The only article – which was shared in draft form by some Democratic lawmakers – accuses Trump of “inciting insurrection” for his role in inciting the violent crowd that invaded the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, temporarily delaying the certification of electoral votes and leaving at least five dead.

According to the impeachment article written by the Reps. Ted Lieu, David Cicilline and Jamie Raskin: “President Trump has seriously endangered the security of the United States and its government institutions. It threatened the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful transition of power and endangered a coordinated branch of government ”.

And as Aaron Rupar of Vox detailed, there is a clear line between Trump’s speech to supporters on Wednesday and the subsequent attack on the Capitol.

“You will never have our country back with weakness,” Trump said Wednesday, just before the riot. “You have to show your strength. You have to be strong.”

If the impeachment article is introduced on Monday as thought likely, it will be voted in plenary quickly, ignoring parts of the normal process.

As Rebecca Kaplan, Kathryn Watson and Grace Segers of CBS News explained on Friday,

The Judiciary Committee has not yet been constituted for the 117th Congress, so an impeachment resolution would go directly to the floor under what is known as a “privileged resolution”.

And from there, it would take just a simple majority of votes – again, in a chamber where Democrats hold the majority – to impeach Trump for the second time, kicking off the Senate process detailed by McConnell.

Democrats worry about slow trial

Some Democrats, however, have argued that McConnell’s timeline is a slow, deliberate progression of the impeachment process.

In an interview on Friday with Rachel Maddow of MSNBC, Congressman Adam Schiff – the House’s chief impeachment manager during Trump’s previous impeachment – dismissed the memo as “written for public consumption”.

“Mitch McConnell is the master of the Senate rules, for better or worse – and it has been for bad,” said Schiff on Friday. “Here he is essentially saying that he is going to drag this. If Mitch McConnell wants to move with expedition, he knows how to do it. And if he doesn’t, then he will be responsible for any dangerous acts that this president does. “

But while McConnell’s term as majority leader is about to end after Democrats won two Senate seats in Georgia this week – tipping the camera balance to 50-50 as soon as Sens elected officials, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock take office – will retain the title until at least January 20, when Vice President-elect Kamala Harris becomes the tiebreaker, replacing Vice President Mike Pence.

And some Democrats believe the trial process could frustrate the early days of the next Biden administration. An impeachment trial takes automatic precedence over other business in the Senate floor until its conclusion and therefore could delay confirmation by the Senate of the Biden Cabinet after he takes office.

West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat, expressed concern about this possibility on Friday.

“We need to form our government quickly – that is the most important thing we should be doing,” he said, according to the Washington Post. “We don’t need more political theater.”

Biden, meanwhile, declined to comment on whether he believes Trump should be charged again.

“This is a decision to be made by Congress,” he said on Friday.

It is not clear whether Trump would be condemned by the Senate

Whatever the schedule for a possible Senate trial, it is unclear whether there are enough votes to actually condemn Trump. A two-thirds vote – 67 members – is needed to condemn, and only a few Republican senators expressed openness to even consider doing so.

“If they get together and have a lawsuit,” said Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska on Friday, “I’m sure to consider any articles they can present, because, as I told you, I believe the president disregarded his oath to mandate”.

One senator who was more explicit in her thinking is Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski – she asked Trump to step down immediately.

“I want him to step down,” she told the Anchorage Daily News on Friday. “I want him out. He’s already done enough damage. “

Murkowski also questioned his future with the Republican Party on Friday. “If the Republican Party has become nothing more than Trump’s party,” she said, “I sincerely question whether this is the party for me.”

In February, when the Senate voted for the conviction after Trump’s first impeachment trial, only one Republican voted to condemn: Utah Senator Mitt Romney. Now, however, Romney has yet to signal support for impeachment, saying, “I think we just have to hold our breath” until Biden becomes president.

Trump was finally acquitted during his first Senate trial.

However, the Senate will likely vote as jurors again soon. Slow or slow trial processes, Cook Political Report editor Dave Wasserman told Vox on Friday that “all Democrats are already on board”.

“We cannot heal our country if we simply ignore what happened on Wednesday,” Rep. Ted Lieu of California said Friday. “This was an insurrection and coup attempt in which several people died.”