Senate won't hold impeachment trial until Pelosi hands over articles, McConnell says

Congressional leaders have reached an impeachment standoff.

The House passed both articles of impeachment against President Trump last month, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has since refused to hand them to the Senate until it agrees to hold "fair" trial. And in a Friday Senate floor speech, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) essentially said that's not going to happen.

To start, McConnell dispelled the "fantasy" that Pelosi would get to "hand-design the trial proceedings in the Senate" as a "non-starter." After all, McConnell said, the oath of "impartial justice" lawmakers take before an impeachment trial "has never meant that senators check all political judgment at the door." "Impeachment is not a narrow legal question, but a political one as well," McConnell continued.

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McConnell did acknowledge that "it's the Senate's turn now to render sober judgment as the framers intended." "But we can't hold a trial without the articles," McConnell continued. And if Pelosi won't send them on without the promise of a fair process, well, it looks like they'll be stuck in the House for a while to come.