Clyburn: House may wait to send any articles to Senate
“We’ll take the vote that we should take in the House, and (House Speaker Nancy Pelosi) will make the determination as to when is the best time to get that vote and get the managers appointed and move that legislation over to the Senate,” Clyburn told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union.”
“It just so happens that if it didn’t go over there for 100 days, it could — let’s give President-elect Biden the 100 days he needs to get his agenda off and running, and maybe we’ll send the articles sometime after that,” the South Carolina Democrat added.
Pelosi said Friday that Democrats are prepared to move forward this week with impeaching Trump over his role in last week’s deadly attack on the US Capitol if he doesn’t resign. Democrats plan to introduce their impeachment resolution on Monday, which already has more than 190 co-sponsors.
The comments from Clyburn come as Democrats grapple with how impeaching Trump for a second time could impact Biden’s early days in office, when he is working to get administration appointments approved in the Senate and tackling legislative priorities, like another coronavirus relief package.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell previously made clear in a memo that even if the House moved in the coming days to impeach Trump, the Senate would not return to session before January 19. That would place the start of the trial on January 20 — the date of Biden’s inauguration.
From there on out, the Senate is rendered mostly incapable of any action other than the trial until its completion, as was apparent during the first Trump impeachment trial.
By impeaching and removing Trump, even at this late stage of his term, the Senate could subsequently vote to disqualify him from ever holding federal office again, taking an extraordinary action against a former president.
Several congressional Republicans have made clear they want to see Trump leave office.
Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, meanwhile, has endorsed invoking the 25th Amendment, which would force Trump’s removal.
This story has been updated with additional details Sunday.
CNN’s Phil Mattingly, Manu Raju, Kate Sullivan and Nicky Robertson contributed to this report.