Politics

McConnell Makes Change To Senate Impeachment Rules

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Henry Rodgers Chief National Correspondent
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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made a change to a resolution Tuesday that will lengthen President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate by at least one day.

The altered resolution will give both sides 24 hours to argue their case over three trial days instead of two as originally planned. Senators would then be given 16 hours for questioning. The schedule would mean a break from the previously scheduled 12-hour days of argument in the Senate. The impeachment trial could be over before Trump’s scheduled State of the Union address, on Feb. 4.

The House of Representatives officially voted Jan. 15 to send the articles of impeachment against Trump to the Senate and approved the House’s impeachment managers.

The vote to send the articles of impeachment to the Senate and approve the impeachment managers was 228-193. Democratic Minnesota Rep. Collin Peterson was the only Democrat to vote nay, breaking with the rest of his party. House Republicans all voted together. 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat from California, right, speaks before signing H.R. 3877, the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2019, with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. (Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Pelosi announced Jan. 15 the seven lawmakers who will serve as the House managers in the Senate impeachment trial against the president. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: We Asked Every GOP Senator About Impeachment. Seven Ruled It Out.)

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff is the lead manager. The other managers include House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, House Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries, Democratic Colorado Rep. Jason Crow, Democratic Florida Rep. Val Demings, Democratic Texas Rep. Sylvia Garcia, and Democratic California Rep. Zoe Lofgren.

The seven impeachment managers’ roles are very much like the roles of prosecutors, as the members are responsible for presenting the impeachment inquiries to the Senate and making the case as to why Trump should be impeached with the evidence they have gathered. (RELATED: Sen. McConnell Says Pelosi’s Impeachment Strategy Achieved ‘Absolutely Nothing’)

Pelosi had previously withheld the articles of impeachment, saying she doesn’t think the Republican-led Senate will hold a trial that both sides can agree on.