TRUMP SENATE TRIAL
Republicans signal deep resistance
Pelosi to send Senators single article of impeachment passed in House
US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was set to send the Senate a single article of impeachment yesterday accusing Donald Trump of inciting the Capitol riot, formally triggering the first-ever impeachment trial of a former president.
Pelosi, the top Democrat in Congress, vowed last week that the trial -- already scheduled to open in the second week of February -- should proceed, saying, "I don't think it will be long, but we must do it."
But Republican lawmakers signaled over the weekend that Democrats may struggle to secure Trump's conviction over the storming of US legislative buildings earlier this month, which left five people dead.
Senior figures in Trump's party have pushed back with both political and constitutional arguments, raising doubts that Democrats -- who control 50 seats in the 100-seat chamber -- can secure the 17 Republican votes to reach the two-thirds majority needed to convict.
"I think the trial is stupid. I think it's counterproductive. We already have a flaming fire in this country and it's like taking a bunch of gasoline and pouring it on top," Marco Rubio, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, told Fox News Sunday.
He acknowledged that Trump -- who had urged thousands of his supporters to flock to Washington and protest the congressional certification of Joe Biden's victory -- "bears some responsibility for what happened."
But to "stir it up again" could only hurt the country, said Rubio, a presidential candidate beaten by Trump in the 2016 primary.
Other Republicans argued that the Senate has no authority to put a private citizen -- as Trump now is -- on trial.
Senator Mike Rounds told NBC's "Meet the Press" that the constitution does not allow for the impeachment of a former president.
But Senator Mitt Romney, the Republicans' 2012 presidential candidate and a frequent Trump critic, told CNN that "the preponderance of legal opinion is that an impeachment trial after a president has left office is constitutional. I believe that's the case."