Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has told Minority Leader Schumer’s staff on Wednesday that Senate Republicans will not allow the Senate to gather early in order to allow an impeachment trial while President Trump is still in office. The Hill reports that “a senior Senate Republican aide confirmed that McConnell’s office reached out to Schumer’s office to relay the message that Republicans will not agree to a Friday session to enable house democrats to present an article of impeachment to the Senate.” McConnell said in a memo that unless all 100 senators agreed to reconvene, they would not be handling any Senate business until they are scheduled to return on the 19th. The impeachment trial will still be held, but not until the afternoon of January 20th, at which point the president will be Joe Biden. McConnell told Axios: “Even if we started a trial yesterday, there’s not enough time to remove him from office,” and other Republican sources told the news outlet: “there’s better than a 50-50 chance that McConnell would vote to convict Trump.”
The House of Representatives began impeachment trials earlier this week and will continue Wednesday. It is anticipated that the impeachment will be voted in favor of, making President Trump the only president to be voted to impeach twice. While the Senate is unlikely to remove Trump from office before his term expires, if the Senate votes to convict Mr. Trump, he would be barred from running for president again in 2024. The New York Times has reported that Senator McConnell believes Trump’s actions to incite the insurrection on the Capitol are grounds for impeachment, but has not yet commented on whether he would or would not vote to convict.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said that it is not necessary for the unanimous consent of senators to reconvene in this instance like McConnell said in his memo, and that legislation was passed in 2004 that says that with the consent of just the Majority and Minority leaders, they can call to reconvene at any time to respond to emergencies. “This is a time of emergency,” Schumer told reporters. “I’ve asked him to call the Senate back- all he needs is my agreement, I’m still minority leader.”
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) told the House Floor during a debate about the impeachment that the president bears responsibility, however he does not believe Trump should be impeached so close to the end of the term. This was disputed by other members including Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) who believe that Trump presents a “clear and present danger” and must leave office as soon as possible.
