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WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial is likely to begin after Joe Biden’s inauguration, and Republican Leader Mitch McConnell tells senators their decision to condemn the outgoing president for the Capitol Riot will be a “vote of conscience.”
The time of the trial, the first of a president is no longer in office, has not yet been defined. But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made it clear on Friday that Democrats intend to move quickly to President-elect Joe Biden’s $ 1.9 trillion COVID aid and economic stimulus package. to speed up vaccinations and send relief to Americans. Biden is expected to be sworn in on Wednesday.
Pelosi called the recovery package “an urgent matter.”
The uncertainty of the timeline, despite the House’s swift indictment of Trump just a week after the murderous Jan.6 siege, reflects the fact that Democrats do not want the Senate trial to dominate the opening days of the House. ‘Biden administration.
With security on alert for the threat of further potential violence As the inauguration approaches, the Senate is also moving swiftly to prepare to confirm Biden’s candidate for national intelligence director Avril Haines. A committee hearing is scheduled for the day before the nomination, signaling that a confirmation vote to install him in the post could come quickly once the new president takes office.
Many Democrats have been pushing for an immediate impeachment trial to hold Trump accountable and prevent him from performing his future duties, and proceedings could still begin on inauguration day. But others have urged a slower pace as the Senate considers Biden’s cabinet candidates and the newly Democratic-led Congress considers priorities such as the coronavirus plan.
Biden’s new White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Friday that the Senate can do both.
“The Senate can do its constitutional duty while continuing to rule the affairs of the people,” she said.
Psaki noted that during Trump’s first impeachment trial last year, the Senate continued to hold hearings every day. “There is a precedent,” she says.
Trump is the only president to have been impeached twice and the first to be prosecuted leaving the White House, an ever more extraordinary end to the defeated president’s tenure. He was first impeached by the House in 2019 for his relations with Ukraine, but the Senate voted in 2020 to acquit him.
When his second trial begins, House impeachment officials say they will argue that Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric hours before the bloody attack on Capitol Hill was not isolated, but rather part of a increasingly intense campaign to cancel the November elections. This culminated, they will say, in the Republican president’s rallying cry to “fight like hell” as Congress counted the electoral college votes to confirm he lost to Biden.
For Republican senators, the trial will perhaps be a final test of their loyalty to the defeated president and his legions of supporters in their home countries, and their own experiences of sheltering on Capitol Hill as a crowd protests Trump ransacked the building and tried to overturn Biden’s election. This will force a further reassessment of their relationship with the defeated president, who has lost not only the White House, but majority control of the Senate as well.
“These men were not drunkards making fuss – they were terrorists attacking this country’s constitutionally mandated transfer of power,” Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb, said in a statement on Friday.
“They failed, but they dangerously came close to triggering a bloody constitutional crisis. They must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. “
McConnell, who has spent the last few days speaking to senators and donors, tells them the decision on whether or not to condemn Trump is theirs alone – meaning the leadership team won’t work to keep Senators in line in one way or the other.
Last week’s assault angered lawmakers, stunned the country and broadcast disturbing imagery around the world, the most serious violation of the Capitol since the War of 1812 and the worst by local intruders.
Pelosi told reporters on Friday that the nine House impeachment officials, who act as House prosecutors, are working to bring the case to justice.
“The only way to reunify this broken and divided country is to shed light on the truth,” said Representative Madeleine Dean, D-Pa., Who will serve as the impeachment official.
Trump was impeached by the House on Wednesday on the sole charge of inciting insurgency, in an ultra-fast procedure just a week after the siege. Ten republicans joined all Democrats in the 232-197 impeachment vote, the most bipartisan modern presidential impeachment.
McConnell is ready to consider impeachment, after telling associates he’s done with Trump, but has not indicated how he would vote. McConnell continues to wield great influence in his party, though calling the trial next week could be part of his final acts as majority leader as Democrats prepare to take control of the Senate with two new ones. Democratic senators from Georgia.
No president has ever been sentenced in the Senate, and it would take a two-thirds vote against Trump, an extremely high hurdle. But condemnation of Trump is not beyond the realm of possibility, especially as businesses and wealthy political donors distance themselves from his politics and the Republicans who supported his attempt to overturn the election.
Senator Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said Thursday: “Such illegal actions cannot be without consequence.” She said in a statement that the Chamber has responded “appropriately” with the indictment and will consider the trial arguments.
At least four Republican senators have publicly expressed concerns about Trump’s actions, but others have indicated their preference to move on. Senator Tom Cotton, R-Ark., Released a statement saying he opposes the impeachment of a president who has stepped down. Trump ally Lindsey Graham of South Carolina is stepping up support for the launch of a commission to investigate the siege as an alternative to sentencing.
The riot delayed the electoral college vote count, which was the final step in finalizing Biden’s victory as lawmakers fled for refuge and police, guns, barricaded the gates from the chamber to the chamber.
A Capitol Police officer died of injuries sustained in the attack and police shot and killed a woman. Three other people have died in what authorities have called medical emergencies.
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Associated Press editors Will Weissert, Kevin Freking, Andrew Taylor, Alan Fram, Zeke Miller, and Jonathan Lemire contributed to this report.
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