Sen. Lindsey Graham asked Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer to support a vote to dismiss the article of impeachment brought by the House against President Donald Trump on Sunday. Graham wrote that holding an impeachment trial for Trump after he has left office would be “as unwise as it is unconstitutional” while the Senate awaits the House’s article of impeachment charging Trump with inciting an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
Graham’s letter comes after Trump became the second president to be impeached twice after the House voted 232-197 in favor of approving the article of impeachment, including support from 10 Republicans. In his letter, Graham cited that the Constitution includes two remedies for impeachment: removal and disqualification. He stated it was not in the framer’s intention to allow a former president to be disqualified from running via impeachment after leaving office.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has said there is “no chance that a fair or serious” impeachment trial could conclude before President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated on Wednesday, as he declined to reconvene the Senate to begin the process, despite Schumer calling for an emergency session.
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