Where has Trump gone after leaving office?
According to The Hill, on January 21, local time, Trump was photographed playing at a private golf club in Florida after “retirement”.
Although Trump has left office, his impeachment case continues.
On the afternoon of January 13th local time, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to pass the impeachment bill against Trump.
Subsequent debates over the next step of the impeachment and whether the impeachment case is in accordance with the U.S. Constitution has never stopped.
On January 21 local time, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell issued a statement saying that he recommended to postpone the trial of Trump’s impeachment and give Trump’s lawyers more time to prepare, because everyone needs a comprehensive and fair process.
Give Trump time to prepare? The Republican leader of the U.S. Senate was exposed to propose to postpone the impeachment trial to February.
McConnell proposes to postpone the trial until February
Earlier, House Democrats made it clear that since Biden’s presidency has begun, the impeachment trial should be pushed forward quickly.
They believe that the trial is “necessary” to help the whole country and both houses of Congress truly “look forward”.
McConnell proposed a broader timetable than the urgency of House Democrats.
He suggested that the House of Representatives formally submit the articles of impeachment on January 28 local time, thus starting the first stage of the trial.
After that, the Senate will give the defense team and the House of Representatives two weeks to submit the briefing.
Trump needs to respond by February 4 and submit a pretrial briefing by February 11.
McConnell said in a statement that everyone, whether it is the Senate, the Biden administration or Trump, needs a comprehensive and fair process.
Especially considering the rapid action of the House of Representatives on impeachment, however, a full trial can fully respect Trump’s rights, clarify the facts, and solve legal and constitutional issues. Sen.
John Cornyn, a Republican from Texas, also believes that anyone accused of impeachable crimes needs a fair trial process.
The Senate and the House of Representatives launched a new round of games.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer is evaluating McConnell’s plan and will discuss it, according to the Associated Press.
Now, the two parties are divided equally in the Senate, and the two will also negotiate how the Senate will work in the future and how to balance other priorities.
However, the initiative to start the trial is still in the hands of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, who can trigger the trial by submitting charges against Trump’s “sedition” impeachment clause to the Senate at any time.
When will Trump’s impeachment clause be submitted? Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives: Hand it over when the Senate is ready.
If the Senate wants to successfully convince House Democrats eager to start a trial, the Senate may need to coordinate the game with it on other matters.
The Associated Press analysis believes that the postponement of the trial will give the Senate more time to confirm Biden’s cabinet nomination and debate Biden’s new coronavirus relief bill.
Democratic Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, a close ally of Biden, said in an interview with CNN that Democrats are willing to consider delaying the trial if progress can be made in confirming Biden’s cabinet nomination.
According to the Washington Post, on January 21 local time, Lloyd Austin, a retired four-star general nominated by Biden, has been granted a congressional exemption.
Under the National Security Act of 1947, the Secretary of Defense must not be in any active U.S. military forces for at least seven years, while Austin retired from active military service in 2016.
Austin needs to pass the relevant exemption bill in Congress if he wants to succeed in office. The report pointed out that this exemption paved the way for Austin’s historic appointment, who may become the first African-American defense secretary in American history.
Previously, Austin was not optimistic about Austin’s immunity in the United States.
Some Republican senators said that exemptions should not happen more than once in a generation, and Trump’s Defense Secretary Mattis had been granted one exemption four years ago.
Democrats are considering moving forward with a speedy trial.
According to CNN, many Republicans directly urged Democrats to abandon the Senate trial of Trump, saying that Trump has left office, and it is “unconstitutional” to push forward the trial process.
In addition, it is inconsistent with the spirit of solidarity called for at Biden’s inauguration.
However, Pelosi’s attitude is very clear, “the impeachment case must be advanced”.
She believes that not trying Trump would be “harmful to unite”, saying that he could not be exempted from the trial because he has left office.
Schumer also reiterated that although he and McConnell are trying to agree on how to conduct the trial, there is no doubt that there will be a trial and there will be a vote.
According to CNN, it is not clear whether the trial is a comprehensive trial with evidence and witnesses, or a speedy trial without evidence and witnesses, according to CNN.
In Trump’s first impeachment case, the head of the House impeachment bill devoted most of his energy to witness testimony.
Pelosi suggested that this may not be necessary this time, because “the whole world has witnessed Trump’s incitement this year” and Democrats are considering a speedy trial process.
On January 19, local time, just one day before Biden officially took office as President of the United States, McConnell explicitly accused Trump of being responsible for the Capitol riots, saying that his supporters were misled by lies.
The Associated Press said that this was McConnell’s most severe public accusation against Trump.
McConnell’s statement raised Democrats’ hopes of persuading 17 Senate Republicans to convict Trump. However, some Republicans warned McConnell that if he voted for Trump’s conviction, McConnell’s support among Senate Republicans would quickly weaken.
CNN pointed out that in addition, Trump’s legal team also needs to put a question mark.
Compared with the first trial, Trump is at a disadvantage this time.
Last time he had all the resources of the White House Office of Counsel, and in the face of the second impeachment trial, it is now certain that Trump has at least one lawyer, Butch Powers, defended him.
