House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday stood by her position that the House will not send the Senate the just-passed articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump until she sees “the process that is set forth in the Senate” -- how a trial would be structured.
When asked at her weekly news conference if there’s risk in Republicans saying she is playing games by holding the articles, Pelosi said, "We don't know the arena that we're in. Frankly, I don’t care what the Republicans say.”
“We would hope there would be a fair process just as I hope they would honor the Constitution,” Pelosi said of Republicans, adding that she’s said all she’s going to say on the matter until she knows more about what Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will agree to.
Notably, she has not said what exactly she needs to see for from the Senate and it's still not clear if the Democrats’ demand for live witnesses will be a deal-breaker.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi speaks about the impeachment of U.S. President Donald Trump during her weekly news conference with Capitol Hill reporters at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., Dec. 19, 2019.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi speaks about the impeachment of U.S. President Donald Trump during her weekly news conference with Capitol Hill reporters at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., Dec. 19, 2019.Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
"In any event, we are ready. When we see what they have, we'll know who, and how many [impeachment managers], we'll send over. And that's all I have to say on this now,” Pelosi said.
McConnell, speaking on the Senate floor a short time before Pelosi, said that she and her fellow Democrats were getting "cold feet" and were "afraid" to send their "shoddy" articles of impeachment to the Senate.
The Constitution's framers suspected that "we might might have rogue president," Pelosi said. "I don't think they suspected that we'd have a rogue president and a rogue leader in the Senate at the same time," Pelosi shot back.
She began by saying she has a “spring in her step” by witnessing the “moral courage” of her Democratic caucus to vote to impeach President Trump, and said it was interesting to see the bipartisan response.
“I have a spring in my step because of the moral courage of our caucus,” she said.
Speaking after the House impeachment vote Wednesday night, Pelosi would not commit to formally sending the articles of impeachment to the Senate – a requirement ahead of any impeachment trial. “That would have been our intention,” she said at a news conference with her six investigative chairs. “We’ll see what happens over there.”
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi delivers remarks alongside Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., and Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., following the House of Representatives vote to impeach President Donald Trump on Dec. 18, 2019 in Washington, D.C.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi delivers remarks alongside Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., and Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., following the House of Representatives vote to impeach President Donald Trump on Dec. 18, 2019 in Washington, D.C.Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images
Pelosi said the House wouldn’t name impeachment managers – the term used to describe the team of House members selected to present the impeachment case to the Senate – “until we see what the process will be on the Senate side.”
Earlier in the week, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer suggested Democrats weren’t considering the idea.
“I don't think that that's the path we'll follow, but that does not mean we will immediately deliver. There are considerations relating to other legislation,” he said. “As I understand the rules of the Senate, once they receive the articles they have to act, they have to go into trial, they can't do any other work. So that will play into that consideration.”
But the possibility of withholding the articles to maintain leverage over the terms of a Senate impeachment trial has picked up steam among progressives.
Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., speaking in favor of impeachment on the House floor Wednesday, said he hoped Democratic leaders withheld articles until they “can negotiate an agreement on process and witnesses from McConnell so that the next stage will be open and fair, so that Donald Trump will ultimately be held accountable.”
“There is no requirement that we transmit the articles immediately, and especially when there is no agreement from the Senate about exactly what the trial is going to look like,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., a co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told ABC News.
“This is a very situation than the last impeachment, when you definitely saw Democrats and Republicans at least trying to work together on what the rules would be,” she said. “If Republican senators want to have any legitimacy in the future … then they need to make sure this is a real trial."
