Rep. Bradley Byrne (R-Ala.) introduced a resolution to the House of Representatives on Jan. 8 to censure Speaker Nancy Pelosi for her delay in sending the articles of impeachment against President Trump to the Senate.
“Speaker Pelosi’s decision to hold the articles of impeachment against President Trump in a pathetic and unconstitutional attempt to extract concessions from the Senate is an unprecedented abuse of power,” Byrne said in a statement announcing the resolution.
“House Democrats made the misguided decision to rush through the most legally unsound and factually unsupported articles of impeachment in the history of this country, and they can’t now insist that the Senate fix their shoddy, incomplete work.”
The two articles, for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, were approved by House Democrats on Dec. 18, 2019, with allegations that Trump withheld U.S. military aid to Ukraine in return for officials there investigating former Vice President Joe Biden.
All House Republicans voted against both articles, as did two Democrats, while Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who is seeking the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, voted present on both articles.
Pelosi on Thursday said she would not be holding the articles indefinitely and that she would probably send them soon, while expressing frustration with McConnell for not agreeing to witnesses.
“The Constitution grants the House the power to censure its members, the most serious rebuke the House can give a member short of expulsion,” he said. “An adopted censure resolution would require the offending member to stand in the well of the House and have the resolution read aloud. The last censure resolution adopted by the House occurred in 2010.”
The censure formally condemning Pelosi is not expected to see movement in the Democratic-controlled lower chamber.
