Clyburn says House may hold articles of impeachment until after Biden’s first 100 days

House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) suggested Sunday that the Democratic House may wait until after President-elect Joe Biden’s first 100 days in office to send the Senate articles of impeachment against President Trump.

Asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper if he thought impeachment proceedings would take time away from confirming Biden’s Cabinet, Clyburn responded, “Yes, I do have concerns. And so does Speaker Pelosi.”

“Mitch McConnell is a pretty good legislator. And he’s doing what he thinks he needs to do to be disruptive of President Biden. But I would say to Mitch McConnell, Nancy Pelosi is smarter than that,” added the No. 3 House Democrat, referring to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

{mosads}“We will take the vote that we should take in the House. And [Pelosi] will make the determination as to when is the best time to get that vote and get the managers appointed and move that legislation over to the Senate,” Clyburn added.

“Let’s give President-elect Biden the 100 days he needs to get his agenda off and running,” Clyburn added. “And maybe we will send the articles some time after that.”

Clyburn went on to say he expected the House to have its final articles of impeachment sometime Monday and take floor action on them by Tuesday or Wednesday. While Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) has written a single article for incitement to insurrection in relation to last week’s deadly Capitol riots, Clyburn said House leaders are also exploring articles related to the president pressuring Georgia officials to change election results.

“We heard him on the phone talking to the secretary of state, in fact, almost ordering him, begging at one time and ordering at the other time, and threatening him with criminal action to overturn the vote, to find him 11,700-some odd votes that he needed in order to be declared the victor,” Clyburn said. “That is impeachable. And I think it should be brought into the discussion.”

Pelosi on Saturday told House Democrats to be prepared to return to Washington, D.C., this week as talk of whether and how to remove Trump from office amps up.