McConnell calls pending Trump trial 'vote of conscience'

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump's impeachment trial is likely to start after Joe Biden's inauguration, and the Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, is telling senators their decision on whether to convict the outgoing president over the Capitol riot will be a "vote of conscience."

The timing for the trial, the first of a president no longer in office, has not yet been set. But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made it clear Friday that Democrats intend to move swiftly on Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID aid and economic recovery package to speed up vaccinations and send Americans relief. Biden is set to take the oath of office Wednesday.

Pelosi called the recovery package a "matter of complete urgency."

The uncertainty of the scheduling, despite the House’s swift impeachment of President Trump just a week after the deadly Jan. 6 siege, reflects the fact that Democrats do not want the Senate trial to dominate the opening days of the Biden administration.

With security forces on alert over the threat of more potential violence heading into the inauguration, the Senate is also moving quickly to prepare for confirming Biden's nominee for national intelligence director, Avril Haines. A committee hearing is set for the day before the inauguration, signaling a confirmation vote could come swiftly once the new president is in office.

Many Democrats have pushed for an immediate impeachment trial to hold President Trump accountable and prevent him from holding future office, and the proceedings could still begin by Inauguration Day. But others have urged a slower pace as the Senate considers Biden’s Cabinet nominees and the newly Democratic-led Congress considers priorities like the coronavirus plan.

Biden's incoming White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, said Friday the Senate can do both.

"The Senate can do its constitutional duty while continuing to conduct the business of the people," she said.

Psaki noted that during President Trump's first impeachment trial last year, the Senate continued to hold hearings each day. "There is some precedent," she said.

President Trump is the only president to be twice impeached, and the first to be prosecuted as he leaves the White House, an ever-more-extraordinary end to the defeated president’s tenure. He was first impeached by the House in 2019 over his dealings with Ukraine, but the Senate voted in 2020 to acquit.

When his second trial does begin, House impeachment managers say they will be making the case that President Trump’s incendiary rhetoric hours before the bloody attack on the Capitol was not isolated, but rather part of an escalating campaign to overturn the November election. It culminated, they will argue, in the Republican president’s rally cry to "fight like hell" as Congress was tallying the Electoral College votes to confirm he’d lost to Biden.

For Republican senators, the trial will be a perhaps final test of their loyalty to the defeated president and his legions of supporters in their states back home. It will force a further re-evaluation of their relationship with President Trump, who lost not only the White House but majority control of the Senate, as they recall their own experiences sheltering at the Capitol as a pro-Trump mob ransacked the building.

"These men weren’t drunks who got rowdy — they were terrorists attacking this country’s constitutionally-mandated transfer of power," said Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., in a statement Friday.

"They failed, but they came dangerously close to starting a bloody constitutional crisis. They must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."

McConnell, who has spent the past days talking to senators and donors, is telling them the decision on whether or not to convict President Trump is theirs alone. His stance, first reported by Business Insider, means the GOP leadership team will not work to hold senators in line one way or the other.

Last week's assault angered lawmakers, stunned the nation and flashed unsettling imagery around the globe, the most serious breach of the Capitol since the War of 1812, and the worst by home-grown intruders.

Pelosi told reporters on Friday that the nine House impeachment managers, who act as the prosecutors for the House, are working on taking the case to trial.

"The only path to any reunification of this broken and divided country is by shining a light on the truth," said Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Pa., who will serve as an impeachment manager.

President Trump was impeached Wednesday by the House on the single charge, incitement of insurrection, in lightning-quick proceedings. Ten Republicans joined all Democrats in the 232-197 vote, the most bipartisan modern presidential impeachment.

It’s unclear who will make up the legal team representing the outgoing president at the trial. Democrats are tapping lawyer Barry Berke among others who worked on President Trump’s first impeachment.

McConnell is open to considering impeachment, having told associates he is done with President Trump, but he has not signaled how he would vote. McConnell continues to hold great sway in his party, even though convening the trial next week could be among his last acts as majority leader as Democrats prepare to take control of the Senate with the seating of two new Democratic senators from Georgia.

No president has ever been convicted in the Senate, and it would take a two-thirds vote against President Trump, an extremely high hurdle. But conviction is not out of the realm of possibility, especially as corporations and wealthy political donors distance themselves from his brand of politics and the Republicans who stood by his attempt to overturn the election.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said Thursday, "Such unlawful actions cannot go without consequence." She said in a statement that the House responded "appropriately" with impeachment and she will consider the trial arguments.

At least four Republican senators have publicly expressed concerns about President Trump’s actions, but others have signaled their preference to move on. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., issued a statement saying he opposes impeachment against a president who has left office. President Trump ally Lindsey Graham of South Carolina is building support for creating a commission to investigate the siege as an alternative to conviction.

The riot delayed the tally of Electoral College votes, the last step in finalizing Biden’s victory, as lawmakers fled for shelter and police, guns drawn, barricaded the doors to the House chamber.

A Capitol Police officer died from injuries suffered in the attack, and police shot and killed a woman. Three other people died in what authorities said were medical emergencies.