Republican U.S Senator Josh Hawley has blamed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of subverting the constitution by delaying the transfer of impeachment articles in a political dispute over the handling of Trump’s trial. He introduced a resolution to the Senate to update its rules so that articles of impeachment can be dismissed for lack of prosecution by a majority vote unless they are sent up by the House within 25 days of their passage. Hawley informed Sean Hannity on his Fox News show Monday night and said, “This is so important because the House speaker is trying to run the United States Senate. She’s trying to hijack the trial. She’s trying to obstruct the trial. And in so doing she’s really subverting the constitution because the constitution is clear. It says the House has the power to impeach. They’ve done that. Wrong decision, but they’ve done it. The Senate has the power to try the case and it’s time for the Senate to fight back”.
It is noteworthy that changing Senate rules need a two-thirds supermajority. It is making Hawley’s resolution highly unlikely to pass if it is ever brought to a vote. There are currently 53 Republican Senators, 45 Democrats, and 2 independents caucus with the Democrats in the U.S Senate. The House impeached Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress on 18th December 2019, over his alleged misconduct towards Ukraine. The proposal of Hawley says the articles would be dismissed for lack of prosecution on 11th January 2020.
Point to be noted that Trump is alleged to soliciting Ukraine’s interference in the next presidential election to benefit his re-election campaign and then obstructing Congress by refusing to cooperate with its investigation into the allegations. The president has already denied any wrongdoing. Trump allegedly conditioned $391 million of military aid and a White House visit for President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Kyiv opening corruption investigations against Joe Biden. Democrats say Republicans are not going to allow a fair trial of Trump. Pelosi is withholding the articles, and so delaying the trial, to put pressure on Senate Republicans to call key witnesses sought by the Democrats.