Biden’s Press Secretary: Senate Can Multitask on Impeachment (Sekulow Recap)

In her first press conference, President Biden’s new press secretary doubled down on impeachment, saying the Senate can multitask to convict a private citizen while working on COVID-19 relief.

Today on Sekulow, we discussed the statement made by President Biden’s Press Secretary,  Jen Psaki, that the Senate can multi-task to work on pressing issues of government – which is their primary responsibility to the American people – while impeaching now former President Trump. That clearly sounded like an endorsement of impeaching a now private citizen.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, was asked the following by Peter Doocy of Fox News:

President Biden wants a theme of his presidency to be unifying the country. Does he think that Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer should drop a potentially divisive Senate impeachment trial?

Ms Psaki responded:

Well, he spoke today, as you all saw about unity in his inaugural address and the importance of unity and bringing the country together and the resolve of the American people in helping to get through this moment. We are confident though that just like the American people can, the Senate can also multitask and they can do their constitutional duty while continuing to conduct the business of the American people.

That was the first press conference for the new White House Press Secretary, who formerly held that role for the State Department under the Obama Administration, as well as being a former CNN contributor.

Some people are saying that Psaki did not answer the question. I think she did. I think she basically said that there is definitely going to be an impeachment trial and that the Senate could do the trial at the same time that they are working on COVID-19 relief.

It certainly looks like they are heading towards a trial. Speaker Pelosi talked about it during her own press briefing:

We will be, in a matter of a few days, be talking to the managers as to when the Senate will be ready for the trial of the then-President of the United States, for his role in instigating an insurrection.

The one thing we don’t yet know is if the U.S. Senate parliamentarian has actually come back with a ruling saying that they can hold an impeachment trial of a former President while also splitting their time to conduct other business.

The new President stressed a desire for unity in his inaugural speech. Perhaps having an impeachment trial in the Senate next week is not the best way to foster unity.

The full broadcast is complete with much more discussion and analysis of the state of a potential Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump as well as the political and legal ramifications of that.

Watch the full broadcast below.