WASHINGTON (NewsNation Now) — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will send the article of impeachment against now-former President Donald Trump to the chamber on Monday.
The Senate cannot begin its trial until the article is formally sent over from the House, which voted 232-197 to impeach Trump on a charge of “incitement of insurrection” last week. The move came one week after the deadly riots at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, and made Trump the first president in U.S. history to be impeached twice.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced the schedule Friday.
“There will be a trial,” Schumer said.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell had proposed to Schumer on Thursday a delay to the start of Trump’s impeachment trial to mid-February. McConnell said in a statement that the delay would give the former president time to review the case.
“Senate Republicans are strongly united behind the principle that the institution of the Senate, the office of the presidency, and former President Trump himself all deserve a full and fair process that respects his rights and the serious factual, legal, and constitutional questions at stake,” McConnell wrote. “Given the unprecedented speed of the House’s process, our proposed timeline for the initial phases includes a modest and reasonable amount of additional time for both sides to assemble their arguments before the Senate would begin to hear them.”
Only after a conviction could the Senate then hold another vote to fulfill Democrats’ intentions of barring Trump from ever running for federal office again.