McConnell: Trump impeachment trial to start after Inauguration Day
Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell says the impeachment of US President Donald Trump will not begin in the Senate before the Inauguration Day.
"The House of Representatives has voted to impeach the President. The Senate process will now begin at our first regular meeting following receipt of the article from the House," McConnell said in a statement on Wednesday.
"This is not a decision I am making; it is a fact. The President-elect himself stated last week that his inauguration on January 20 is the ‘quickest’ path for any change in the occupant of the presidency," he noted.
The Senate, already out of session, will recess on Jan. 19 and the earliest day it could begin the impeachment process would be either on Jan. 20, the day President-elect Joe Biden is sworn in, or Jan. 21, the day after he is sworn in.
This comes as no Republican senator has expressed support for the impeachment articles so far except for Ben Sasse who has said he's open to considering the articles passed by the House of Representatives.
The House lawmakers voted for Trump's impeachment (232-197) on Wednesday over his role in last week’s deadly attack on the US Capitol, making him the first president of the country to be impeached twice.
Last Wednesday, armed protesters broke into the US Capitol, forcing the chamber to halt the ongoing vote to certify Biden’s election win. After two months of refusal to accept his defeat in the November 3 election, Trump sparked the violence, calling on his supporters to “fight like hell.”
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