Republicans introduce resolution to change Senate rules in order to dismiss articles of impeachment

Republicans in the U.S. Senate introduced a resolution that would change the congressional rules in order to allow them to dismiss articles of impeachment that are not sent for a trial in the Senate.

Republican Sen. Josh Hawley (Mo.) defended the resolution in a statement on Monday, saying that the founders did not envision the eventuality of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) refusing to send articles of impeachment to the Senate.

"The Constitution gives the Senate sole power to adjudicate articles of impeachment, not the House," Hawley said in the statement.

"If Speaker Pelosi is afraid to try her case, the articles should be dismissed for failure to prosecute and Congress should get back to doing the people's business," he added.

The resolution would allow for 25 days for the House to send articles to the Senate after an impeachment vote.

After that, a simply majority could vote to dismiss the impeachment vote "with prejudice for failure by the House of Representatives to prosecute such articles."

Pelosi has indicated that House Democrats will withhold from sending the articles to the Senate until Republicans agree to rules that they say will result in a fair trial on impeachment.

"Let's be clear, this has never been done before, it's not even been thought of before!" Hawley said on the floor of the Senate about the Democratic maneuvering.

Here's Hawley's statement on the resolution:

Sen. Hawley (R-MO) on Delay in Articles of Impeachmentwww.youtube.com