Congress returns to impasse over Trump impeachment trial

WASHINGTON — Congress faces a crucial test next week as lawmakers return from the holiday break to a standoff between Democrats and Senate Republicans over the rules and timing of the Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump.

The two sides are still at an impasse. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) demonstrated they haven’t budged on their positions when they made remarks on the Senate floor on Friday.

The start of the trial hangs in limbo. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has yet to send the two articles of impeachment passed on party-line votes in the House and the list of lawmakers who will prosecute the case to the Senate — actions required to start a trial.

Pelosi might deliver the articles to the Senate next week, according to some reports, but Trump’s drone strike in Iraq Friday could complicate that plan by appearing to undercut the president during an international military action.

And it remains unclear how McConnell, Schumer and Pelosi will reach an agreement.

McConnell and Schumer will meet with their respective caucuses behind closed doors Tuesday to take the temperature of their party members on the next steps. Pelosi and House members do not reconvene until Tuesday evening.

McConnell and Schumer met Dec. 19 to discuss the trial. They haven’t met again.

On Dec. 18, House Democrats in an overwhelmingly party-line vote approved charges against Trump of abuse of power for pressing Ukraine to investigate his political rival, Democrat Joe Biden, and obstruction of Congress for a blanket refusal to cooperate with the House inquiry.

On Friday, Schumer insisted that the trial’s initial presentation and arguments should include the calling of four key witnesses — all current or former Trump officials or advisers who potentially could bolster Democrats’ case but also could sink it, depending on what they say.

He said recent disclosures of emails by a key White House budget official, Michael Duffey, makes his case for the four witnesses: Duffey, acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, White House aide Robert Blair and former National Security Adviser John Bolton.

McConnell rejected that proposal and said the trial should follow the same process as the impeachment of President Bill Clinton 20 years ago.

In the Clinton trial, the Senate heard witnesses only after the House Republicans and Clinton’s defense team made their presentations and arguments. After those arguments, the Senate took up motions on witnesses and voted to depose and then hear videos of three of them.

McConnell lashed out at Pelosi for trying to use the withholding of the articles of impeachment to influence the shape of the Senate trial.

“Their turn is over,” McConnell said. “It’s the Senate’s turn now — to render sober judgment as the framers envisioned. But we can’t hold a trial without the articles.” And he added, "So, for now, we are content to continue the ordinary business of the Senate.”

With a majority of 53 Republican senators, McConnell has the upper hand. Schumer needs four Republicans to defect to win any votes on process, requiring a majority of 51. And he is working hard to persuade some of them by stressing that the impeachment trial must be fair.

“It may feel like we are no closer to establishing the rules for a Senate trial than when we last met. But the question, the vital question, of whether or not we have a fair trial ultimately rests with a majority of the senators in this chamber,” Schumer said Friday.

Pelosi in a statement Friday said, "Every senator now faces a choice: to be loyal to the president or the Constitution."

“The fact of the matter is, as long as McConnell can hold his caucus together, his incentive to move is about nil,” said William Galston, a senior fellow at the centrist nonpartisan Brookings Institution, a think tank in Washington, D.C.

“Here's the best case for Democrats,” he said. “The three or four Republicans in tough races would come to him and say, ‘Look, Mitch, we want to preserve our majority as much as you do. And we're afraid based on what we're hearing, that we're not going to be able to do that unless there's some give in your position.’”

So far, just two Republican senators — Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine — have expressed some unease about McConnell’s vow to coordinate during the trial with the White House. They also suggested they might be open to hearing witnesses.

Democrats also have backed Schumer so far, but some Democrats from Trump-supporting states might vote to acquit the president. It takes two thirds of the Senate to convict a president of an article of impeachment.

The unexpected also could emerge in the impeachment process.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), for example, tweeted Friday that if Pelosi does not send the articles of impeachment to the Senate, he will try to dismiss it. “So on Monday, I will introduce measure to dismiss this bogus impeachment for lack of prosecution,” he tweeted.