Republicans are chastising Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for making gifts out of the pens she used to sign the two articles of impeachment against President Trump.
On Wednesday, Pelosi signed the articles, which passed the House in December, before they were taken across the Capitol to the Senate. Pelosi handed out the special pens she used in a commemorative signing tradition that Trump has also participated in with various bills and executive orders.
Top GOP officials, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham, criticized the Speaker, saying giving out the “souvenir pens” undercut her claims that the impeachment process is “solemn and serious.”
“The Speaker distributed souvenir pens, souvenir pens to her own colleagues emblazoned with her golden signature that literally came in on silver platters,” McConnell said on the Senate floor.
The majority leader also tweeted out his disdain for Pelosi’s action on Thursday, calling it “the House’s partisan process distilled into one last perfect visual. Not solemn or serious. A transparently political exercise from beginning to end.”
“She was so somber as she gave them away to people like prizes,” Grisham agreed.
House Republican Whip Steve Scalise (La.) tweeted out the CNN footage of Pelosi handing the pens to fellow Democrats, saying, “So much for ‘somber’ and ‘solemn.’”
Other GOP lawmakers including Reps. Mark Meadows (N.C.) and Paul Gosar (Ariz.) also denounced Pelosi on social media.
Pelosi deputy chief of staff Drew Hammill said in a statement that impeachment is “tragic” but also “historic.”
“As the Speaker has said, it is tragic that the President’s attacks on our Constitution have brought our country to this point, but it is indisputably historic when the Constitution and its balance of power reasserts itself,” Hammill.
“Today, the Government Accountability Office confirmed that the President’s actions were illegal abuses of power, and Republicans are complaining about pens,” he added.
Hamill was referencing to the GAO report that found that the administration violated the law by withholding aid from Ukraine.
The lower chamber on Wednesday officially transferred the articles to the Senate for Trump’s trial after weeks of delay. Pelosi had withheld the articles from the Senate, saying she wanted details on the rules of the trial first.
The senators are scheduled to be sworn in for the trial by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts on Thursday afternoon, after the House impeachment managers read the articles to the upper chamber.
—Updated at 12:58 p.m.