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.
Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota said many Republicans are content to wait patiently and focus on regular legislative business, such as clearing the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade and confirming more judicial nominees. “We’re in no hurry to have them deliver stuff; we’ve got work to do ourselves,” he said after Senate Republicans discussed the issue privately during their weekly caucus lunch.
Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri has introduced a resolution, supported by about a dozen Republicans, that would change Senate rules to permit a vote on dismissing articles of impeachment against Trump absent receipt of the documents from the House. House Democrats approved the two articles, one charging Trump with abuse of power and the other on obstruction of Congress. But changing Senate rules requires a 67-vote supermajority, and Democrats would surely block Hawley’s resolution.
Accordingly, the Republicans’ only viable alternative to pass Hawley’s measure is to deploy the “nuclear option.” This rarely used and controversial procedural maneuver amounts to breaking Senate rules to change the rules with a simple majority vote. It has been used by both parties, but only sparingly, and only to overcome minority filibusters of executive branch and judicial nominees.
A few Republicans, such as Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, are open to this bold action. But neither McConnell nor anywhere near 51 of 53 Senate Republicans have an appetite to go this route to change impeachment rules. Presently, it is unlikely that 51 Republicans support Hawley’s proposal.
“It is a rule of impeachment in the Senate that we must receive the papers; it continues to be my hope that the speaker will send them on over. The House argued that this was an emergency,” McConnell told reporters.
There are signs that Pelosi’s delay could be coming to an end, with some Senate Democrats suggesting it has accomplished enough — and about all that it can. Since Trump was impeached on Dec. 18, news reports have uncovered more information that Democrats say points to Trump’s guilt, and John Bolton, the president’s former national security adviser whose testimony they sought, has agreed to testify if subpoenaed by the Senate.
But some Republicans are warning that their patience is not endless.
If Pelosi delays transmission of the articles of impeachment indefinitely, Republican demands to counter the tactic could grow. One response could be a floor vote on Hawley’s resolution. It would fall short of 67 votes but would give Republicans an opportunity to register their frustration. At that point, if Pelosi still did not change course, John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 2-ranking Republican in the Senate, said support for bolder action among his GOP colleagues could increase.
“My guess is, if the House continues to stall this and to violate the spirit of the whole process, then, at some point, we’ll look at other options,” Thune said.
