President Donald Trump on Thursday chastised House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) after she refused to commit to sending over two articles of impeachment to the Senate that were passed on a party line vote Wednesday evening.
“I got Impeached last [night] without one Republican vote being cast with the Do Nothing Dems on their continuation of the greatest Witch Hunt in American history. Now the Do Nothing Party want to Do Nothing with the Articles & not deliver them to the Senate, but it’s Senate’s call!” Trump wrote on Twitter.
“‘The Senate shall set the time and place of the trial.’ If the Do Nothing Democrats decide, in their great wisdom, not to show up, they would lose by Default!” the president added.
Late Wednesday, Pelosi refused to commit to sending the articles of impeachment — abuse of power and obstruction of Congress — to the Senate when pressed by reporters, claiming that “was never part of the conversation.”
“We have legislation approved by the Rules Committee that will enable us to decide how we will send over the articles of impeachment,” Pelosi said. “We cannot name [impeachment] managers until we see what the process is on the Senate side.”
The Speaker claims that she is waiting to ensure that there is a “fair” trial in the Senate, which is controlled by Republicans.
GOP leaders have said for a week that any trial would lead to a swift acquittal of the president because the House’s articles of impeachment contain no real evidence of crimes.
The vote to impeach Trump was partisan; only Democrats supported impeachment. But there was a bipartisan vote against impeachment.
Three Democrats voted not to impeach Trump while one, 2020 Democratic presidential contender Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, voted “present.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said that his chamber will take up impeachment because the rules and the Constitution require it.
“We’ll listen to the arguments that the House managers appointed by Pelosi make, we’ll listen to the response from the president’s lawyers, and we’ll have a period of written questions, and then the Senate will have to make a decision,” McConnell told Fox News Tuesday.
“Do we know enough, have we learned enough after listening to all this that we want to vote on the two very weak articles of impeachment? Or do we want to have a show trial in which both sides try to embarrass the other and put on an embarrassing scene, frankly, for the American people,” McConnell stated.