Trump slams potential delay in Senate impeachment trial

Source: Politico | December 19, 2019 | Quint Forgey and Kyle Cheney

President Donald Trump on Thursday criticized House Democrats for their reluctance to transmit recently approved articles of impeachment to the Senate, arguing that they would “lose by Default” if a trial was not conducted in the Republican-controlled chamber.

“I got Impeached last night without one Republican vote being cast with the Do Nothing Dems on their continuation of the greatest Witch Hunt in American history,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “Now the Do Nothing Party want to Do Nothing with the Articles & not deliver them to the Senate, but it’s Senate’s call!”

The president’s morning message came hours after a majority of the House voted Wednesday night to impeach Trump on articles charging him with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

But Speaker Nancy Pelosi signaled after the evening’s proceedings that she may hold up the delivery of those articles to the other side of the Capitol until Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell addresses Democrats’ concerns regarding a trial biased in the White House’s favor.

“So far we haven’t seen anything that looks fair to us,” Pelosi told reporters at a news conference, and senior Democratic aides said the House was “very unlikely” to take the steps necessary to send the articles to the Senate until at least early January.

Trump lashed out at the potential delay, tweeting Thursday: “‘The Senate shall set the time and place of the trial.’ If the Do Nothing Democrats decide, in their great wisdom, not to show up, they would lose by Default!”

The president’s posts, however, incorrectly characterize the next steps in the impeachment process. Though the Constitution gives the Senate the “sole power” to try impeachments, it is silent on how quickly the House must transmit impeachment articles that it adopts.

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