When House Democrats impeached former President Donald Trump for the second time, they argued that doing so quickly was of the utmost importance. Why, then, has it taken Democrats more than a week to send their impeachment article to the Senate?
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced on Friday that the Senate will begin Trump’s impeachment trial on Monday, which is when the House plans to send its article of impeachment to the upper chamber. But not one Democrat has explained why House Speaker Nancy Pelosi delayed as long as she has. She wanted to make sure President Biden’s first few days in office weren’t bogged down by a trial. And she wanted to make sure the Senate’s impeachment vote hurts the Republican Party as much as it hurts Trump.
Democrats are playing politics with what was supposed to be such an urgent matter of business that it couldn’t even wait a week. This should come as no surprise because Trump’s impeachment was never urgent. To be sure, Trump’s conduct on Jan. 6, before and after the Capitol riot, was reprehensible and perhaps even impeachable. But by the time Democrats drew up an article of impeachment, the former president was already on his way out the door.
Pelosi and Schumer also knew there was very little chance a second impeachment effort would result in his removal. Trump has too many Republican allies in the Senate, and even those concerned with Trump’s behavior during his final weeks in office have publicly raised objections to the legally dubious impeachment article House Democrats engineered.
All of this suggests the House’s impeachment vote was really just about making sure Trump became the only president in U.S. history to be impeached twice. If removing Trump and disqualifying him from holding office ever again had truly been the main objective, House Democrats would have sent the impeachment article to the Senate earlier this week, the moment the Senate returned to session, when there was still enough momentum to give Republicans pause about taking Trump’s side.
Now, a conviction is almost entirely out of the question, and Democrats know it. But they’re still hoping to make this trial as politically advantageous as possible, as their recent delay tactic proves.
