President Donald Trump is awaiting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s go-ahead for House managers to present the two articles of impeachment against him to the U.S. Senate for a trial. On Friday, Fox News host Gregg Jarrett suggested that the leader of the Republican-controlled Senate, Sen. Mitch McConnell, go ahead with the trial regardless of the House’s delay.
According to Fox News , Jarrett slammed House Democrats, and particularly Pelosi, for delaying the Senate trial portion of the impeachment process, calling the tactic a “stunt.” He then claimed that the U.S. Constitution lacks any language that specifically requires that the Senate wait for the House to pass the articles of impeachment to them to begin a trial process.
“The framers never envisioned a stunt pulled by a speaker of the House like Nancy Pelosi holding onto articles of impeachment. Two decades ago it was sent over immediately, within minutes. There was a vote to convey and transmit it,” Jarrett said during an appearance on Sean Hannity’s nightly show on Friday.
“The Constitution is actually silent about that. It doesn’t say that the Senate has to wait until it’s transmitted. It’s simply a Senate rule,” Jarrett added.
The Fox News host stressed that Majority Leader McConnell has the power to change the Senate rule that dictates the process by which the upper chamber can begin an impeachment trial and equivocated Pelosi’s withholding of the articles to “extortion.”
“Mitch McConnell shouldn’t be subjecting himself to the extortion of Nancy Pelosi,” Jarrett said. “He can, beginning in January, simply alter the rule or eliminate it entirely and set a date for an impeachment trial.”
Jarrett’s suggestion that the Senate move forward with the impeachment trial comes on the heels of growing backlash from Trump and his Republican allies with regard to Pelosi’s announcement after the impeachment vote that she decided to wait until fair rules are negotiated for Democrats involved in the process.
Those eventual rules will largely be decided between Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and McConnell. As previously reported by The Inquisitr , the two senators met last week with intentions of beginning the negotiations for the impeachment rules and procedure, however, talks reportedly broke down after only 20 minutes.
The two Senate leaders have repeatedly traded barbs on the subject for several weeks, with McConnell arguing that the rules for former President Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial were largely going to be used for Trump’s impeachment trial.
But Schumer countered McConnell’s argument, saying that because there were more witnesses during Clinton’s impeachment in the House, different rules are in order for Trump’s eventual trial.
Currently, Congress is out on a holiday recess and there has been no mention by congressional leaders on a possible date when a trial will take place.
