House Democrats Stalling on Sending Articles to the Senate

Minutes after both articles of impeachment passed the House of Representatives, the process to advance them to the Senate appeared to be stalled.

"We cannot name managers until we see what the process is on the Senate side, and I would hope that it will be soon, as we did with our legislation, our resolution 660 to describe what the process would be. So far we haven't seen anything that looks fair to us, so hopefully it will be fair and when we see what that is we'll send our manager," said Speaker Pelosi. 

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other Republican leaders, like Senator Lindsey Graham, have said in recent days they do not plan to be impartial jurors. 

There's no rule that says the Speaker must send over the articles of impeachment at all. Traditionally, the Majority Leader and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer would iron out the rules of a trial. But as of now, that's not happening.

 Schumer and the president have both said they'd like to call witnesses, but McConnell refuses. Graham, a close ally to the president, agrees with the Majority Leader’s decision.

As House Democrats debate whether to send articles of impeachment to the Senate, the White House says they've got confidence in Leader McConnell -- however he chooses to conduct the impeachment trial.

When asked by Newsy, White House Strategy Advisor Tony Sayegh wouldn't say whether the president considers impeachment a stain on his presidency.

With no finite deadline to send over articles and the holiday break looming, a Senate trial could be weeks or even months away.