McConnell backs measure to change Senate rules, dismiss impeachment without articles

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is backing a resolution to change the Senate’s rules to allow for lawmakers to dismiss articles of impeachment against President Trump before the House sends them over.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) announced on Thursday that McConnell has signed on as a co-sponsor to the resolution, which he introduced earlier this week.

Spokesmen for McConnell didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about his support.

Changing the rules would either require a two-thirds vote or for Republicans to deploy the “nuclear” option.

The resolution would give the House 25 days to send articles of impeachment over to the Senate. After that, a senator could offer a motion to dismiss “with prejudice for failure by the House of Representatives to prosecute such articles” with a simple majority vote, according to Hawley’s proposal.

McConnell has repeatedly lashed out at Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for delaying sending over the two articles of impeachment.

“This is what they have done: They have initiated one of the most grave and most unsettling processes in our Constitution and then refused to allow a resolution,” he said on Thursday.

‘The Speaker began something that she herself predicted would be ‘so divisive to the country’ … and now she is unilaterally saying it cannot move forward towards a resolution,” he added.