and his copartners planning to introduce their article on monday with more than 190 cosponsors ms pelosi spent saturday consulting fellow democrats and told them in a letter to be prepared to return to washington within days for possible action she did not say explicitly that she would pursue impeachment but vowed to hold mr trump accountable there must be a recognition that this desecration was instigated by the president she wroteyet the timing of such an effort with just 11 days until mr trump is to leave office scrambled the equation senator mitch mcconnell of kentucky the republican leader indicated that under senate rules a trial could not begin until jan 19 the day before presidentelect joseph r biden jrs inauguration meaning the process would not advance quickly enough to avert any feared dangerous moves in mr trumps last days in powerthat raised the prospect of conducting a trial after mr trump vacates the white house overshadowing the opening days of mr bidens administration at a time when he would like to turn the page and confront crises like the coronavirus pandemic which has grown even deadlier while attention has focused on washingtons political wars a nationally televised trial could dominate discussion and would prevent other business in the senateif the house does send articles of impeachment over they really get the biden administration off to a bad start senator roy blunt republican of missouri said in an interview on saturday whether thats the first 10 days or the first 20 days of the biden administration its certainly not how youd want to start your presidency offsome of mr trumps critics argued that it would be important to hold a trial even if he is already out of power in order to bar him from ever seeking office again a penalty envisioned by the constitution and perhaps more important to render a verdict condemning his actions for the sake of historyweve never had to consider even the possibility of impeaching a president twice or in the final days of his presidency said michael j gerhardt a constitutional scholar at the university of north carolina who testified in mr trumps first impeachment and favors another trial but weve never had a president before whos encouraging sedition as trump has done in his last few days in officeyet even some of the presidents harshest critics worried that a lastminute impeachment and an overtime trial could help him rally supporters by presenting himself as a victim not a villain allowing him to turn the focus from his own actions to those of his opponentsit historically will be important said andrew weissmann who was a deputy to the special counsel robert s mueller iii and recently published a book where law ends expressing frustration that the president was not held fully accountable for his actions during the russia investigation but the danger is he is acquitted and the momentum of condemnation now is lost plus until we change the mentality of his base