Democrats are expected to introduce a new impeachment resolution next week, but if they were hoping for quick approval of the resolution and a Senate trial before Trump leaves office, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell effectively threw cold water on the idea.
According to a memo obtained by the Washington Post, the Senate “will not reconvene for substantive business until Jan. 19, which means the earliest possible date that impeachment trial proceedings can begin in the Senate is the day before President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated.”
The memo says, “Although the Senate will hold two pro forma sessions next week, on Jan. 12 and Jan. 15, it is barred from conducting any kind of business during those days — including ‘beginning to act on received articles of impeachment from the House’— without agreement from all 100 senators. With a cadre of Trump-allied senators in the Republican conference, that unanimous consent is highly unlikely.”
Democrats, who previously falsely accused Trump of colluding with Russia to steal the 2016 election, are now falsely accusing Trump of inciting an “insurrection.”
Without unanimous consent of the Senate to take up business during the two pro forma sessions, the Senate will not reconvene until January 19, the day before the inauguration.
A conviction in the U.S. Senate is still highly unlikely, but with McConnell killing the possibility of such a trial before Trump leaves office, the Democrats’ latest efforts to remove Trump are destined to fail. There is debate amongst legal scholars as to whether impeachment could continue after Trump leaves office, but Republicans are still highly unlikely to convict. While there might be a few weak-kneed Republicans who would vote to convict, it won’t be enough to get the two-thirds vote required.
So this all comes down to the question of whether Democrats are going to proceed with another futile effort to appease their base, all while further dividing this country. As I’ve previously noted, the left has been trying to kick Trump out of office since before he took the oath.
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Matt Margolis is the author of Airborne: How The Liberal Media Weaponized The Coronavirus Against Donald Trump, and the bestselling book The Worst President in History: The Legacy of Barack Obama. You can follow Matt on Twitter @MattMargolis
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