Four days ago, no one imagined the House would be on track to impeach President Donald Trump for a second time. CNN
Senate Democrats held a two-hour caucus call Sunday to have an open, frank and family discussion about how to handle the House’s impeachment.
One person familiar with the call told CNN that nothing has been decided at this point and there is a range of options on the table, including everything from having the House leadership wait 100 days to send over the articles to holding a one-day trial in the early hours of Biden’s presidency.
In his memo to members Friday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made it abundantly clear that he won’t be bringing the Senate back to hold an impeachment trial and the Senate does not return until January 19.
The Senate stands in recess and Senate floor experts to whom CNN has spoken over the last several days don’t believe the House could present articles of impeachment during a pro-forma session.
Remember, once the articles of impeachment are presented to the Senate, the chamber must begin an impeachment trial at 1 p. m. ET the following day unless senators strike another agreement.
That means that Trump will no longer be the President if and when the Senate begins consideration of impeachment.
One of the options currently being discussed is to hold an hours-long Senate trial as a way to hold Trump accountable without risking a long delay to Biden’s agenda.
Waiting 100 days to send over the articles: House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn suggested on CNN on Sunday that one option would be to hold onto the articles for 100 days before transmitting them to the Senate.
And while it would prevent impeachment from taking up floor time in the US Senate, this option doesn’t exactly clear the air.
But, there is another option for impeachment in the Senate.
Again, the precedent for Presidents has been to have a full on Senate trial and Senate rules do make the case that its more appropriate for impeachment trials to be conducted for a US President, but there is technically a way for the Senate Majority Leader to convene a special committee to collect evidence.
In upcoming days, keep your eyes on what a group of Republicans says about the process to impeach Trump.