I am quite surprised at the traction received for the idea of some kind of delay in sending the Articles of Impeachment to the Senate. I don’t doubt that this is constitutionally permissible. I don’t doubt that there is ample justification for fearing that the trial in the Senate. And clearly it would be advantageous to put pressure on McConnell to permit relevant witnesses to be called, not to mention helpful to make a public showing that the GOP is complicit in betraying our county.
But delaying the transmission of the articles seems like an extraordinarily bad strategy to me.
First of all, McConnell is not going to be pressured by this maneuver. If there is a delay, he can credibly argue that the impeachment wasn’t serious. For if this was really the emergency the Dems claim, he will say, then why delay? Further, he can assert that the House has no business (or constitutional authority for) dictating to the Senate how the Senate conducts a trial.
Second, if the delay is purportedly for the purpose of developing more evidence before the House, then GOP can plausibly argue that the impeachment must have been based upon insufficient evidence. Indeed, they can claim that this would be akin to “verdict first, trial second.”
Third, a delay will make it even easier for GOP to proclaim that the entire process is politicized. They will rightly point out that, in prior impeachments, there was no delay. Delaying the process seems like procedural gamesmanship, quite easy to demonize.
Simply put, I am confident that delaying this process will tend to undermine the legitimacy and seriousness of the impeachment that just occurred. It will not build any public pressure on McConnell. To the contrary, it will help him.
The one small caveat to this is the possibility that there is some hidden cache of evidence, or witnesses, who can quickly be called by the House. But if that were the case, then why wasn’t the vote delayed briefly? I suppose it’s possible that Pelosi learned of new evidence in the past couple of days, but that seems unlikely. And if the idea is waiting months for courts to order witnesses to testify, doesn’t that just give credence to the GOP claims that the impeachment vote was premature?
I fully recognize the desire to pressure McConnell, obtain new evidence, and highlight the Republican complicity. But delays will simply not achieve any of this. A short delay will be pointless at best. And a long delay will be counterproductive.
The articles should be sent to the Senate promptly.