“I’ll send them over when I’m ready,” Pelosi said when pressed again about her timeline. “And that’ll probably be soon.”
Pelosi’s comments indicate that the stalemate with McConnell over the impeachment trial could continue into next week and beyond, as Capitol Hill’s two most powerful leaders remain at an impasse with both refusing to compromise.
Pelosi on Thursday continued to make the case for withholding the articles, saying it’s only fair Democrats first know the blueprint of the trial so she knows how to assemble her team of “impeachment managers” who will prosecute the case against Trump.
But McConnell too is showing no signs of relenting.
On Thursday, McConnell read a series of statements from Democratic senators quoted in POLITICO who called for Pelosi to wrap up her standoff with the Senate.
He also told Republican senators in the afternoon that he expects Pelosi to transmit the articles of impeachment as soon as Friday, though senators stressed that the Kentucky Republican had no inside information on timing. Some senators began bracing themselves for the trial to begin sometime next week, possibly Monday or Tuesday.
“He expects them at some point here very soon,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said in an interview. “The sense is that even if they got here at this very moment right now, there’s still a process involved to notify the White House and chief justice and turning it all around. So it sounds like to me the earliest we can get on that would be the Monday when we get back.”
In the interim, McConnell indicated the Senate will continue confirming nominees and suggested further delay could lead to approval of Trump’s new trade deal.
„If the speaker continues to refuse to take her own accusations to trial, the Senate will move forward next week with the business of our people. We will operate on the assumption that House Democrats are too embarrassed — too embarrassed — to ever move forward,“ he said on the Senate floor.
Pelosi brushed off McConnell’s taunting, saying it’s the Senate Republicans who are afraid of the trial, which is why they’re refusing to call other witnesses or demand documents withheld by the White House.
The longer Pelosi holds the articles, the more likely a Senate impeachment trial conflicts with the Democratic presidential primaries. The Iowa caucuses are Feb. 3 and the New Hampshire primary is Feb. 11.
After McConnell announced he had enough votes within his own caucus to steamroll Democrats and push through a partisan package of trial rules, even Senate Democrats started to openly push Pelosi to send over the articles.
Meanwhile, Pelosi has largely kept her members in the dark on her next steps on impeachment. And the topic has been noticeably absent from private caucus and leadership meetings this week, with the conflict with Iran dominating discussions.
“I support the speaker’s decision to hold the articles until we get some clarity on what exactly the kangaroo court is going to look like in the Senate,” House Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries told reporters Thursday morning. But he would not comment on how long he believes the impasse could last.
“I’m not going to put a timeline on it one way or another,” he said. “I don’t respond to the whims of the Senate one way or the other.”
“I think her request is pretty reasonable,” Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Texas), another member of Pelosi’s leadership team, said in an interview.
That sense of unity appeared to shift somewhat on Thursday morning, when House Armed Services Chairman Adam Smith (D-Wash.) told MSNBC that he believed „it’s time“ to transmit the articles across the Capitol.
It didn’t last long: Smith quickly issued a statement walking back his remarks. But other cracks have begun to show.
Rep. Ben McAdams (D-Utah) told reporters on Thursday morning that he wants the articles sent to the Senate.
“I think it’s time,” said McAdams, one of the most vulnerable Democrats in the House, who flipped a GOP district that Trump handily won in 2016.
Still, the vast majority of Pelosi’s caucus continues to publicly stand behind her, despite some frustrations members have expressed privately.
Pelosi has held the articles for more than three weeks, since the House impeached Trump on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress on Dec. 18. The speaker refused to send the articles to the Senate in a bid to pressure McConnell to negotiate with Democrats on the terms of the trial.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) had been demanding McConnell agree to call witnesses such as former national security adviser John Bolton and request key documents related to the Ukraine scandal that have been blocked by the Trump administration.
McConnell refused and even openly mocked Pelosi and Schumer’s pressure campaign against him.
“I’m not responsible to Mitch McConnell or anybody else, except my members,” Pelosi said Thursday.
Burgess Everett contributed to this report.
Source: politico.com
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