The Senate will not take any action on the House Democrats ’effort to re-charge President Trump until he is out of office, making next week’s possible vote on the issue debatable before it begins.
According to a calendar released Friday to Senate colleagues, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said no House resolution on the issue could be passed in the upper house until Jan. 19, according to the body’s current schedule. .
House prosecutors could present their case – which Trump would accuse of “provoking an insurrection” in the Capitol on Wednesday – in the Senate that day, McConnell’s note said.
But according to the existing dismissal rules, the debate and voting could not start until 1pm the next day, making the first possible moment for a one-hour dismissal vote after President-elect Joe Biden promises to take office on January 20 at noon.
“Therefore, the trial in the Senate would begin after President Trump’s term has expired,” McConnell wrote, according to the Washington Post.
With the 50-50 Senate still in Republican hands until Jan. 20, when Kamala Harris becomes vice president and gives the Democrats a majority, a unanimous vote of 100 senators would be needed to overturn McConnell’s schedule, a remote possibility .
A post-term impeachment trial for a former president would be a first story, as would a second impeachment trial.