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Senate Impeachment Trial of Trump Likely Won't Start Until Biden Sworn In
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January 13, 2021
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1:32Now PlayingSenate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told Republican senators he’s reached no decision on whether he’ll vote to convict President Donald Trump on the House’s impeachment charge, and he doesn’t plan to call an emergency session to begin the Senate trial before Jan. 19.
Writing in a letter to GOP colleagues obtained by Bloomberg, McConnell said regardless of when the Senate trial begins, there won’t be time to reach a verdict before Trump leaves office on Jan. 20.
“There has never been any chance that any fair or appropriate trial would conclude before President-elect Biden is sworn in,” McConnell said. “In light of this reality, I believe it will serve our nation best if both Congress and the executive branch spend the next seven days completely focused on facilitating a safe inauguration and an orderly transfer of power to the incoming Biden administration.”
McConnell has been under increasing pressure to take a public stand on the impeachment after last week’s storming of the Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters. President-elect Joe Biden has made a personal plea for letting the Senate vote on his cabinet nominees at the same time that a trial proceeds.
McConnell has told associates that he believes that Trump engaged in impeachable offenses last week when he egged on protesters before they converged on the Capitol, two people familiar with the matter said.
But the majority leader said he hasn’t decided how he’ll vote.
McConnell in his letter Wednesday said, “While the press has been full of speculation, I have not made a final decision on how I will vote and I intend to listen to the legal arguments when they are presented to the Senate.”
If McConnell were to support a conviction for Trump, that could have enormous sway among Republicans in the chamber, which will be led by Democrats later this month once three new Democratic senators are seated and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris is sworn in and can break a tie in a chamber split 50-50 between the parties.
So far, no Republicans have said they would convict Trump although Lisa Murkowski of Alaska told a home-state newspaper last week she wants Trump out of office after his role in last week’s insurgency. Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania has said he believes Trump committed impeachable offenses but hasn’t said he would vote to convict either.
Utah Senator Mitt Romney was the only Republican to vote for conviction on one count during Trump’s impeachment trial in January 2020.
In the House, at least six Republicans have broken ranks and announced they would vote in favor of Trump’s impeachment.
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