Clyburn's argument is based on a set of facts that passions cannot overcome. One, if the House impeaches Trump TODAY due to the Senate's rules, they cannot begin a trial until January 19/20th - unless every Senator gives unanimous consent, which is an impossibility. So instead of addressing legislation that will speed vaccines throughout America, or passing legislation providing pandemic aid to struggling families and businesses left on the precipice of ruin due to Trump's malevolence, the US Senate would be consumed with weeks of trial and testimony because Trump must be allowed a defense. And perhaps most importantly, the Senate would not be able to confirm Biden's own Cabinet due to being consumed with another impeachment.

THIS IS WHY Clyburn and others are now thinking that closing the barn door after the horse has already left is not the most pressing priority for the beginning of Joe Biden's presidency and most people looking at the issue with all the relevant facts at hand would likely agree.

This isn't about diminishing the importance of holding Trump responsible for the actions of January 6th. If it were possible to remove him from office a minute prior to 11:59am on January 20th, no one of good conscious would stand in the way. But due to Senate rules, that is impossible, so now the choice becomes what are the most important priorities for the Senate's immediate time after 12pm on January 20th, going after Trump or dealing with America's ongoing issues and giving President Biden the team he's chosen to tackle these issues with.

There is one more advantage to taking more time before starting a Senate trial and that is the FBI will be able to collect more evidence and will likely make it easier for the Democrats to bury Trump's defense with more facts and relevant testimony that would not be available if the trial starts next week, especially testimony and elocutions stemming from those who will have pled guilty who are now being arrested all over the country.

Honestly an impeachment should be a pretty short process in the Senate just like last time.

The Senate trial lasted 2 weeks and 6 days and there was no witness testimony. Wanna try that again? Adding witnesses alone will greatly prolong any trial. And has adequate evidence been compiled and processed yet? Of course not. Not to mention that the House has not named prosecutors nor compiled any case as we speak. It is more than doubtful that they would be ready in 9 days even if the House did pass Articles before then.

So, no, if you want the very first thing the new Democratic majority-led Senate undertakes is impeaching an already gone Donald Trump - have at it. It would be both political and moral suicide as Covid runs rampant, the vaccine distribution is fubar, health systems are strained beyond capacity, and millions are looking for assistance to survive.

Trump's day will come, but it most certainly shouldn't be January 20th as it regards the start of any impeachment trial.

#56

There is a reason that even eyewitnessed murder trials don't take place within days of the killings. This case is not something that is going to be forgotten nor dismissed, in fact, just the opposite and it's happening now. The more time that passes the more information of conspiracy and involvement will be uncovered by the investigations. None of this information nor likely witnesses are available at this moment. This was an attempted coup, possible attempted mass kidnappings and/or executions, mass assaults on law enforcement officers and at least one murder of an officer. It takes time to gather evidence and to put together thousands of people and their roles into a coherent prosecution.

Common sense should override haste imo. At this moment, there are no line ups of witnesses willing to testify for the state against those involved - though there will be once solid cases are built against hundreds of insurrectionists as the events are deconstructed and more and more named suspects emerge. Hurrying a Senate trial is the surest way of providing Trump supplicants with outs. Hurrying on as yet unknown witnesses and evidence - perhaps most importantly drawing direct connection to the intersection of money which provided sponsorship and those close to and including Donald Trump himself - is not rationally prudent. You are operating on emotion, not logic, rationality, nor common sense on how best to make most sure a guilty verdict is rendered.

No one is saying wait many months or years to pursue impeachment. But at this point after January 20th, I'd rather see Trump face criminal charges for inciting an insurrection more than I would an impeachment that won't lead to his conviction, basically leaving us with a principled waste of more time and money from which he walks away from again.