House to send Trump charge Monday

Democrats reject Republican push for delay

WASHINGTON • The Democratic-controlled U.S. House of Representatives will deliver an impeachment charge against former president Donald Trump to the Senate on Monday, rejecting Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's request for a delay.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who displaced McConnell as the chamber's leader, announced the move on the Senate floor on Friday.

Schumer said Trump's second impeachment trial will begin on Feb. 8.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi confirmed the plan in a statement.

White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters the Senate should be able to move forward with both the trial and Biden's agenda, beginning with his call for US$1.9 trillion of fresh COVID-19 assistance for Americans and the U.S. economy.

Schumer's remarks came the morning after McConnell asked the House to delay sending the charges until next Thursday, and called on Schumer to postpone the trial until mid-February to give Trump more time to prepare a defence against the charge that he incited the insurrection of Jan. 6.

“This impeachment began with an unprecedentedly fast and minimal process over in the House,” McConnell said on Friday. “The sequel cannot be an insufficient Senate process that denies former president Trump his due process or damages the Senate or the presidency itself.”

Senate rules call for an impeachment trial to begin at 1 p.m. the day after articles of impeachment are delivered, except for Sundays.

The moves come as Schumer and McConnell are struggling to assert control in a 50-50 chamber where Democrats hold a razorthin majority thanks to Vice-President Kamala Harris' tie-breaking vote.

“I can't imagine that both McConnell and Schumer don't want to have a little more structure here, and particularly Schumer, leave a little more time to move forward with the early Biden decisions before we get locked into the trial,” Republican Senator Roy Blunt told reporters.

Trump is the first president in U.S. history to be impeached twice, and when the Senate convenes for his trial will be the first president tried after leaving office, for his alleged role in urging supporters to storm the Capitol.

The support of at least 17 Senate Republicans would be needed to convict Trump; a separate vote would then be needed to ban him from running for office again.