United States President-elect Joe Biden is due to be sworn in as Commander-in-Chief on 20 January.
While Mr Biden will look to hit the ground running – especially as the US struggles to contain a surging coronavirus outbreak – he will have to navigate the tense political atmosphere created by Donald Trump’s impeachment.
Mr Trump became the only United States president to be impeached twice after the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives voted 232 to 197 in favour of the resolution.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell confirmed on Thursday he would not reconvene the Senate before Mr Biden’s inauguration – stating there was no way a “fair or serious” trial could take place in that time.
The shortest impeachment trial in United States history took three weeks. This means the Senate impeachment trial will stretch into the early days of Mr Biden’s administration and take place after Mr Trump has already left office.
Some Democrats, like House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, have worried that the second impeachment of Mr Trump will distract the attention of the public from Mr Biden’s agenda during his all-important first 100 days.
It is during that period that the tone of the incoming administration’s agenda will be set, not to mention the mammoth task of tackling the raging coronavirus pandemic.
Mr Biden will also need the Senate to be free to confirm his administration’s cabinet appointees, something that could be hindered or delayed if an impeachment trial for Mr Trump is being held in the chamber.
Then there is the question of “unifying the country” and the promise Mr Biden made to “heal the divisions of the nation”.
Impeaching Mr Trump risks stirring up his supporters and inflaming his base at a time when Mr Biden will be desperate to bring the country together.
Karl Rove, the former White House chief of staff to President George W. Bush, recently told Fox News that he thought it was important that Democrats let Mr Trump fade into irrelevance and disgrace on his own, and not go ahead with a second impeachment.
“It looks like they are bent upon retaliation. This is a moment that the new president wants to have the focus on him, this is sucking the oxygen out of the room for Joe Biden,” he said.
“This is not what they want the senate to be focusing on in the first 100 days, they want it to be focus on his appointments and his agenda.”
Timothy Lynch, Professor in American Politics at the University of Melbourne, told SBS News that Mr Trump’s second impeachment created a dilemma for Mr Biden.
“On one hand he won’t want to be sharing the limelight with him during his first 100 days. On the other there is an interest in keeping the Trump bogey man alive for the Democrats,” he said.
The so-called progressive and moderate wings of the Democratic Party were united in their anti-Trump agenda, he said, and there was therefore a political interest in keeping that alive for as long as possible.
Mr Biden himself is keeping coy about whether he supports the renewed efforts to impeach Mr Trump a second time, saying simply that it is a matter for Congress to decide.
No US president ever has been removed from office through impeachment. Three – Mr Trump in 2019, Bill Clinton in 1998 and Andrew Johnson in 1868 – previously have been impeached by the House but were left in power by the Senate.
Republicans made speeches urging the House not to impeach Mr Trump in the interest in promoting national healing, with some accusing Democrats of recklessness.
Politicians remained on edge after last week’s violence, and large numbers of National Guard troops wearing fatigues and carrying rifles were stationed outside and inside the building.
Under the US Constitution, impeachment in the House triggers a trial in the Senate. Senator McConnell has said no trial could begin until the Senate was scheduled to be back in regular session on 19 January, only a day before Mr Biden is due to be sworn in.
