McConnell lacks votes for Senate rules change to sidestep Pelosi impeachment delay
by David M. Drucker
| January 08, 2020 06:00 AM
Senate Republicans are resigned to waiting out House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as she stalls sending over articles of impeachment needed to begin a trial.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell so far lacks the votes to change Senate impeachment rules (should he decide that is what he wants to do) and allow the trial of President Trump to begin without formal transmission of the articles, which the House approved last month.
Some Republicans are pushing to change the rules, easing the way to dismiss charges against Trump should Pelosi sit on the articles indefinitely. Pelosi has withheld the documents since they were approved by House Democrats three weeks ago in a bid to pressure Senate Republicans to agree to subpoena witness testimony from current and former administration officials.
The gambit is not working. On Tuesday, McConnell announced he had secured at least 51 Republican votes to proceed to a trial without an agreement on witnesses. But if Pelosi holds out, delaying the trial further, Republicans are not prepared to take extraordinary measures to change the rules to proceed without receipt of the articles of impeachment from the House.
“The likelihood that the Senate would actually go there, and change the rules to get there, is remote,†said Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri, a McConnell leadership deputy.
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https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/mcconnell-lacks-votes-for-senate-rules-change-to-sidestep-pelosi-impeachment-delay
