Skip to content Skip to footer

McConnell Urged to Confirm His Support for Impeachment by Starting Senate Trial

Citing reports that McConnell backs impeachment, Democrats urged him to start the Senate trial following the House vote.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell walks through the Rotunda headed to the House Chamber at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, in Washington, D.C.

In the wake of reports that Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell privately supports the impeachment of President Donald Trump over last week’s deadly mob attack, Democratic lawmakers and progressive advocacy groups said the GOP leader must immediately set a trial in motion following the House’s expected vote Wednesday to charge Trump with inciting insurrection.

“If the reports are true, this is the first and maybe last time MoveOn agrees with Mitch McConnell. Donald Trump has committed impeachable offenses,” Rahna Epting, executive director of progressive advocacy group MoveOn, said in a statement. “Which is why McConnell must move to start an immediate trial in the Senate.”

“We know the forces that attacked the Capitol last week are planning more attacks,” Epting continued. “We cannot afford to wait one more minute. Every moment Donald Trump is in the White House our nation is put in further danger.”

News of the soon-to-be Senate minority leader’s private support for Trump’s impeachment — and possible support for his conviction — came as the House late Tuesday approved a non-binding resolution formally urging Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment to strip the president of his power during his final days in office.

But before the House passed the resolution in a largely party-line vote of 223-205, Pence sent a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) making clear that he has no intention of invoking the 25th Amendment, claiming such a move would “set a terrible precedent.”

“Pure cowardice,” Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) tweeted in response to Pence’s refusal to act. “We must impeach and remove Trump from office immediately.”

Just a week before Trump is set to leave office, the House plans to vote Wednesday on an impeachment article charging the lame-duck incumbent with “incitement of insurrection” against the U.S. government. The White House — which is not expected to mount an aggressive defense against the impeachment effort — reportedly expects around two dozen House Republicans to vote for the article.

Wednesday’s vote will pave the way for a Senate trial to determine whether Trump is convicted and potentially barred from running for office in the future. But with President-elect Joe Biden set to take office in just seven days, the timeline for the trial remains highly uncertain even as McConnell privately throws his support behind the impeachment effort.

According to the New York Times, McConnell “has told associates that he believes President Trump committed impeachable offenses and that he is pleased that Democrats are moving to impeach him, believing that it will make it easier to purge him from the party.”

But the Kentucky Republican has not taken the necessary steps to ensure that a Senate trial takes place before Trump leaves office, leaving open the possibility that the proceedings could be put off for months. The Washington Post reported Monday that Biden, “scrambling to ensure the effort does not bog down the start of his tenure, pressed the Senate on whether it could simultaneously hold a trial of the president and pass urgently needed bills.”

During a press conference on Monday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) urged McConnell to reconvene the Senate in order to begin the trial immediately after the impeachment article is transmitted by the House, dismissing the Kentucky Republican’s claim that the upper chamber’s rules prohibit such a move without the consent of all 100 senators.

“Leader McConnell is saying he can’t call the Senate back after the House votes for impeachment because it requires unanimous consent — the consent of every senator. That’s not true,” said Schumer. “There was legislation passed in 2004 that allows the Senate minority leader and majority leader to jointly reconvene the Senate in times of emergency.”

“This is a time of emergency,” Schumer continued. “I’ve asked him to call the Senate back. All he needs is my agreement — I’m still minority leader — and his agreement, he’s majority leader. We could come back ASAP and vote to convict Donald Trump and get him out of office now before any further damage is done.”

We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.

As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.

Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.

As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.

At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.

Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.

You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.