Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y) says he thinks his Republicans colleagues are growing tired of waiting for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to transmit the articles of impeachment because the calls to immediately dismiss the impeachment charges against President Donald Trump have subsided.
Speaking on the Senate floor on Thursday, Schumer said Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said he can understand why McConnell is “frustrated” with the delay.
“And I can understand why Leader McConnell is so frustrated. If the speaker had sent the articles of impeachment over the Senate immediately after they passed, Senate Republicans could have moved to immediately dismiss the articles — there was a lot of talk about that awhile ago.”
Watch his comments below:
Sen. Chuck Schumer: "I can understand why Leader McConnell is so frustrated…" pic.twitter.com/4t2BCht6Q6
— The Hill (@thehill) January 9, 2020
While the House conducted its impeachment proceedings late last year, some Republicans mulled the idea of filing a motion to dismiss the charges without a trial.
But, Schumer argued, in the time since the House vote incriminating documents have come out that have poured cold water on the desire to dismiss the articles outright.
“Instead, over the past few weeks, not only have they been prevented from doing that. There have been several crucial disclosures of evidence that appear to further incriminate the president. Each disclosure bolstering the argument we Democrats have made for a trial that features the relevant witnesses and documents.”
For weeks, Congressional Democrats have called for including new witnesses and documents in the Senate trial — a request that McConnell has thus far rejected.
And Senate Republicans on Tuesday announced they had secured the 51-required votes to push through a rules package governing the impeachment trial that does not include a list of witnesses.
The lawmakers added that they could decide on witnesses later on in the trial, instead of that the outset.
But Pelosi has said that she will not transmit the articles of impeachment to the Senate until McConnell lays out the process the Senate trial — putting the effort on hold since the trial cannot begin until the House formally transmits the articles.
By holding onto them, Pelosi has tried to force McConnell to work with Democrats and accept their witness requests. However, McConnell has said he will not negotiate with the House over the procedure of the trial.
However, her plan appears to be falling out of favor among some Democrats. In the three weeks since the House voted to approve the articles of impeachment, Senate Democrats have begun to call on Pelosi to send the articles of impeachment.
When asked about her timeline during her weekly press conference on Thursday, Pelosi said that she would send over the impeachment articles “soon.”
In an effort to try to speed along the process of sending the articles of impeachment, McConnell said the chamber would begin deliberation on other legislation next week if Pelosi delays transmitting the articles of impeachment.
