Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is circulating a resolution urging Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to send over the articles of impeachment.
Graham said that he passed out his resolution during Senate Republicans’ closed-door caucus lunch on Tuesday, and hoped that most of the caucus would support it.
“I’ve got a resolution … urging her to send over the articles, and what she’s doing is out of step with past precedent and an affront to the Senate,” Graham told reporters after the lunch. “It’s not her job to set the trial.”
He added that urging her to send over the articles would “get a lot of Republican support. Hopefully we don’t have to do it.”
Spokespeople for Graham didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about the resolution.
The House passed two articles of impeachment against President Trump last month, one charging the president with abusing his power in his dealings with Ukraine and another alleging he obstructed Congress during its investigation of those actions.
But Pelosi has declined to say when she will transmit them, saying she wants more details on what the Senate trial will look like. A spokesman for Pelosi didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about the timeline for the impeachment articles’ transmission.
But Pelosi has declined to say when she will transmit them, saying she wants more details on what the Senate trial will look like. A spokesman for Pelosi didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about the timeline for the impeachment articles’ transmission.
The move has rankled Trump and Senate Republicans, who have repeatedly lashed out at Pelosi.
“How inappropriate and how embarrassing to rush forward on a partisan basis and then treat … what you’ve done like a political toy. How contemptuous of the American people,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said from the Senate floor on Tuesday.
Democrats have floated that Pelosi could send the articles of impeachment as soon as this week, though Pelosi had not tipped her hand on her thinking.
Nearly a dozen Senate Republicans have introduced a separate resolution to change the Senate rules so that they could dismiss impeachment articles if the House doesn’t transmit them within 25 days.
That effort is unlikely though, given that it takes two-thirds support to change the rules without using the “nuclear” option.
The push for Pelosi to send over the articles comes as McConnell has locked in the 51 votes to establish the impeachment trial rules and delay a decision on witnesses until mid-trial.
Asked if it was time for Pelosi to send over the articles, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said that Pelosi had “already accomplished two things” — she prevented Republicans from dismissing the case around the holidays and helped bolster the claim for witnesses.
“I have great faith in the decision that she will make, but she’s accomplished a great deal already,” Schumer said.