McConnell’s office made that clear to advisers to Senate Democratic minority leader Chuck Schumer on Wednesday, according to Republican officials, meaning that an impeachment trial will not begin until the early days of Joe’s presidency. Biden.
McConnell sent a note to his Republican colleagues on Wednesday afternoon about impeachment, writing that “although the press is full of speculation, I have not made a final decision on how I will vote and I intend to hear the legal arguments when they are presented to the Senate . “
But McConnell is furious, the sources say, with Trump’s incitement to the violent riots that became deadly at the U.S. Capitol last week, and he also blames Trump for the party’s failure to keep the two Georgia Senate seats, losses that will take him and the Republicans the minority in the Senate for the next two years.
In a memo a few days ago to Republican senators, McConnell suggested that the trial would not start until Biden became president, saying that all 100 senators would need to consent to change the Senate’s schedule. He indicated that the sooner the Senate could accept any impeachment article against Trump passed by the House, it would likely be shortly after the end of his term.
“The Senate trial, therefore, would begin after the end of President Trump’s term,” says the memo.
But since then, Schumer has asked McConnell to invoke the emergency authority created in 2004 to summon the Senate again if the two leaders agree to bring the House back.
Democrats are asking McConnell to act immediately.