Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell has ruled out a Senate impeachment trial for President Donald Trump before incoming president Joe Biden’s inauguration on January 20.
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McConnell in a statement said;
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.
He added;
There is simply no chance that a fair or serious trial could conclude before President-elect Biden is sworn in next week. Even if the Senate process were to begin this week and move promptly, no final verdict would be reached until after President Trump had left office. 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.
The Senate is out of session until January 19, a day before Biden will be sworn in.
The top Senate Republican suggested Congress spends the next week “focused on facilitating a safe inauguration and an orderly transfer of power to the incoming Biden administration”.
McConnell’s statement came minutes after the House of Representatives voted on a bipartisan basis to impeach Trump for inciting violence a week after his supporters stormed the Capitol as Vice President Mike Pence and Congress were counting Biden’s Electoral College win.
Ten House Republicans voted to impeach Trump, making it the most bipartisan impeachment vote held for a president.
Trump is the only president to be impeached twice. He was previously impeached in late 2019 over claims he abused his office by withholding military funding from Ukraine.
The president was acquitted at his trial in February 2020. An impeachment conviction is not the same as a criminal conviction, and does not result in a judicial punishment.
