The Senate majority leader is adding his crucial support to a resolution to change the Senate’s rules to permit lawmakers to dismiss articles of impeachment against President Trump before the House sends them over, the Hill reports.
The GOP leader, Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has signed on as a co-sponsor to the resolution, according to Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., who introduced the resolution last week.
Changing the rules would either require a two-thirds vote or for Republicans to deploy the "nuclear option," the Hill observed. As the GOP does not control two-thirds of the Senate, the "nuclear option" for the use of a simple majority would be required. Whether McConnell is seriously considering this possibility is not clear, as further action will be unnecessary if House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Cal., sends the articles over this week, as she has indicated she would.
The resolution would give the House 25 days to send articles of impeachment over to the Senate. After that, a senator could offer a motion to dismiss "with prejudice for failure by the House of Representatives to prosecute such articles" with a simple majority vote, according to Hawley's proposal.
McConnell has said he has been consulting closely with the White House on the impeachment case, which might imply that the President's legal team has assented to Hawley's maneuver.
McConnell has repeatedly assailed Pelosi for her delay in sending over the two articles of impeachment.
"This is what they have done: They have initiated one of the most grave and most unsettling processes in our Constitution and then refused to allow a resolution," he said Thursday. ‘The Speaker began something that she herself predicted would be 'so divisive to the country' ... and now she is unilaterally saying it cannot move forward towards a resolution."
The GOP leader, Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has signed on as a co-sponsor to the resolution, according to Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., who introduced the resolution last week.
Changing the rules would either require a two-thirds vote or for Republicans to deploy the "nuclear option," the Hill observed. As the GOP does not control two-thirds of the Senate, the "nuclear option" for the use of a simple majority would be required. Whether McConnell is seriously considering this possibility is not clear, as further action will be unnecessary if House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Cal., sends the articles over this week, as she has indicated she would.
The resolution would give the House 25 days to send articles of impeachment over to the Senate. After that, a senator could offer a motion to dismiss "with prejudice for failure by the House of Representatives to prosecute such articles" with a simple majority vote, according to Hawley's proposal.
McConnell has said he has been consulting closely with the White House on the impeachment case, which might imply that the President's legal team has assented to Hawley's maneuver.
McConnell has repeatedly assailed Pelosi for her delay in sending over the two articles of impeachment.
"This is what they have done: They have initiated one of the most grave and most unsettling processes in our Constitution and then refused to allow a resolution," he said Thursday. ‘The Speaker began something that she herself predicted would be 'so divisive to the country' ... and now she is unilaterally saying it cannot move forward towards a resolution."
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