Nancy Pelosi Signals Possible Delay To Senate Impeachment Trial

Expressing concerns about a potentially unfair trial, the House speaker would not commit to a timeline for sending the articles of impeachment to the Senate.
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Expressing concerns about the potential bias of a Senate impeachment trial, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday that she would not immediately be transmitting the articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump to the Senate.

“We’re not sending it tonight,” Pelosi told reporters shortly after the House voted to impeach Trump on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

Nancy Pelosi: "We have legislation approved...that will enable to decide how we send over the articles of impeachment."

"We cannot name managers until we see what the process is on the Senate side...so far we haven't seen anything that looks fair to us." https://t.co/yKsBbPoypE pic.twitter.com/VbeE95wx8o

— ABC News (@ABC) December 19, 2019

The congresswoman from California would not commit to any timeline for sending the articles of impeachment to the Senate but said Democrats would make a decision “as a group” on the matter.

Pelosi said Democrats could not name impeachment managers for the Senate trial “until we see what the process is on the Senate side, and I would hope that it will be soon.”

She added that, “so far, we haven’t seen anything that looks fair to us, so hopefully it will be fair ― and when we see what that is, we’ll send our managers.”

When asked what she would consider a fair trial, Pelosi responded by quoting Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s recent remarks on the impeachment proceedings.

“This is what I don’t consider a fair trial ― that Leader McConnell has stated that he’s not an impartial juror, that he’s going to take his ‘cues,’ in quotes, from the White House, and he’s working in total coordination with the White House counsel’s office,” she said.

Pelosi would not say whether she’d wait “weeks” to transmit the articles to the Senate and initially sidestepped a question about “never” sending the articles over.

She later clarified that she “never raised the prospect” of not transmitting the articles at all.

“It’s up to the Senate,” she said when asked about a timeline.

I asked Pelosi point blank if she could wait "weeks" to send the articles to the Senate until Dems get what they consider a "fair" trial. I also asked if she would "never" send over the articles.

She wouldn't rule out either possibility.

The latest twist: pic.twitter.com/ZZZuhb5gnP

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) December 19, 2019
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