'Get moving': Senate Democrats break with Pelosi on impeachment delay

Senate Democrats are breaking with their party leaders over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s decision to hold on to the articles of impeachment, saying it is time to get President Trump’s trial rolling.

The grumbling in the ranks puts pressure on Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, who has stood by Mrs. Pelosi’s decision to withhold charges against the president in an attempt to get Senate Republicans to guarantee witnesses will be called during the trial.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell used the crack in the ranks Wednesday to call on Mr. Schumer to break Mrs. Pelosi’s impasse.

Mr. Schumer did not heed the call. Instead, he continued to stress the need for more witness testimony.

“The Senate is not a creature of the House,” Mr. McConnell, Kentucky Republican, said on the chamber floor. “Stand up for the Senate. Stand up for our institutions. Stand up for the country.”

An impeachment trial in the Senate cannot begin until the upper chamber receives the charges from the House, according to precedent.

Mrs. Pelosi, California Democrat, has kept the two articles since they were voted on Dec. 18, an unprecedented move that Republicans say runs afoul of the Constitution, which dictates that the Senate conduct impeachment trials.

Sen. Doug Jones, a vulnerable 2020 Democrat from the red state of Alabama, is one of the rank-and-file lawmakers ready to get the process started.

“I’m hoping they will come over here soon. I think most people are ready to get moving on this,” he told CNN.