- Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell wants to delay Trump’s impeachment trial until February, CBS News reported.
- Trump was impeached for inciting insurrection, but Pelosi has not yet sent the impeachment article to the Senate.
- McConnell is one of several Republicans who can vote to condemn Trump and prevent him from public office.
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Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell plans to ask Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer to postpone the start of former President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial until February, CBS News reported, citing several sources familiar with the situation. proposal.
McConnell first presented the idea during a conference call with the Senate Republican bench, the report said. It is unclear when in February the Kentucky Republican would request the trial to begin.
The Democratic-controlled Senate faces the unique task of mapping an impeachment trial for the former president, while confirming the choices of President Joe Biden’s office and promulgating his legislative agenda regarding the COVID-19 crisis and the US economic recovery.
The House of Representatives voted to impeach Trump last week, accusing him of inciting insurrection related to the Capitol’s deadly riot on January 6. in the 2020 elections. The failed uprising resulted in five deaths, including a Capitol Police officer who died after Trump supporters beat him with a fire extinguisher.
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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has yet to transmit the impeachment article to the Senate.
When asked on Thursday whether she could clarify when the article would go to the upper house, Pelosi said she would talk to the House’s impeachment administrators about it “in the coming days”, but declined to provide further details.
If Schumer agrees to postpone the start of Trump’s impeachment trial until next month, it will give impeachment managers and lawyers representing the former president more time to prepare. Trump, meanwhile, had some trouble finding legal representation after the riot he incited.
On Thursday, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said a state defense attorney, Butch Bowers, would represent Trump in his impeachment trial.
While the Senate continues to evaluate the trial timeline, Trump has been silent as he fights to be banned permanently from Twitter.
The former president also faces some political danger, as several members of his own party signal that they can vote to convict him after an impeachment trial.
At least half a dozen Republican senators, including McConnell, suggested their positions on the matter and blamed the coup attempt directly at Trump’s feet.
As the most powerful Republican in the country, if McConnell voted to condemn Trump, it would be a seismic development that could open the door for other Republican senators to break out of the ranks and also condemn the former president.
Earlier this week, McConnell said the Capitol crowd was “provoked by the president”. The Washington Post reported that he never wants to speak to Trump again, and The New York Times reported that McConnell believes Trump committed impeachable crimes.
Republican senators Pat Toomey, Lisa Murkowski, Ben Sasse and Mitt Romney also expressed their anger and disappointment at Trump, and some asked him to step down, while others acknowledged that he had committed impeachment offenses. Maine Sen. Susan Collins also said she was “shocked” by Trump’s actions, but said nothing about her position on impeachment.