House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has yet to say when she will send the impeachment article over to the Senate, calling into question her party’s self-proclaimed sense of urgency to take action following the January 6 protest at the U.S. Capitol.
Both Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), both of whom will soon switch leadership roles, have yet to release details of the plans to move forward with an impeachment trial in the Senate following the Democrat-led House voting to impeach President Trump for the second time. Democrats, along with ten House Republicans, have accused him of inciting the riot that occurred at the U.S. Capitol on January 6 as Congress gathered to count and certify the electoral votes.
While McConnell released a timeline indicating that the proceedings would not truly begin until after Inauguration Day, Democrat lawmakers have been vocal in their calls to not only remove Trump from office, but prevent him from running ever again.
“Even if the Senate process were to begin this week and move promptly, no final verdict would be reached until after President Trump had left office,” McConnell said in a statement last week.
“This is not a decision I am making; it is a fact,” the Kentucky Republican added.
However, nothing can proceed until Pelosi transfers the article to the upper chamber, and she has yet to indicate when she plans to do so.
According to Fox News, Pelosi’s office “did not immediately respond” to an inquiry of when she planned to send the article over, nor did she specify her plans during Friday’s press conference. Instead, she praised the House for acting with a sense of urgency.
“As we go forward in terms of the timing …. one week ago on January 6, there was an act of insurrection perpetrated on the Capitol of the United States incentivized by the President of the United States,” she told reporters:
One week later, Wednesday to Wednesday, that president was impeached in a bipartisan way by the House of Representatives — so urgent with the matter, they’re now working on taking this to trial, and when they [do] you’ll be the first to know when we uh when we announced that we’re going over there.
However, she did not provide a specific timeline.
Despite the seeming delay, Schumer affirmed there will be a trial in the Senate as mandated by law.
“Well, we have the trial of the president. That’s mandated by law,” he said in a Sunday appearance on 60 Minutes, accusing Trump of committing the “most despicable action any president has ever taken.”
“And he should be convicted at this trial,” he continued, noting that they could “remove him from ever running again. ”
“I know we wanna heal,” he said, defending his party’s decision to pursue impeachment yet again. “But when something this awful happens, to just push it off will not heal.”