House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-SC) said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) could wait months to send the Senate the Articles of Impeachment for President Donald Trump.
Tapper said, “Mitch McConnell says that any trial of the president after impeachment could begin on January 20 at 1:00 p.m. That would be about an hour after Biden has been sworn in as the 46th president. It could distract the Senate from considering any cabinet nominees for Joe Biden, passing coronavirus relief. Do you have any concerns that Congress will be distracted if this trial goes forward instead of focusing on the cabinet and coronavirus?”
Clyburn said, “Yes, I do have concerns. So does Speaker Pelosi. Mitch McConnell is a pretty good legislator, and he’s doing what he thinks he needs to do to be disruptive of President Biden. But I would say to Mitch McConnell, Nancy Pelosi is smarter than that. We will take the vote that we should take in the House of Representatives e, and she will make the determination as to when is the best time to get that vote, get the managers appointed, and move that legislation over to the Senate. It just so happens that if it did go over there for 100 days, it could. Let’s give President-elect Biden the 100 days he needs to get his agenda off and running. Maybe we will send the articles sometime after that.”
Tapper said, “All right. So you might impeach this week— vote to impeach this week but then not deliver the articles of impeachment for several months until the cabinet, at least most of the cabinet has been confirmed for Joe Biden as well as coronavirus rely being passed.”
Clyburn said, “I would say in this instance, it is up to the speaker to do whatever she thinks is the best thing the to do.”
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