Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on Sunday urged incoming Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) to hold a vote to dismiss the article of impeachment against President Donald Trump passed by the House last week, The Hill reports.
Graham wrote in a letter to Schumer that the New York Democrat is seeking "vengeance and political retaliation" in his first act as majority leader instead of beginning "national healing."
"While the Vice President and Senate Republicans rejected unconstitutional actions, you seek to force upon the Senate, what would itself be but one more unconstitutional action in this disgraceful saga—the impeachment trial of a former president," Graham wrote.
The House of Representatives last week voted to impeach Trump for "inciting insurrection" after a mob of his supporters stormed the US Capitol earlier this month, marking the second time he has been impeached.
While 10 House Republicans voted in favor of the impeachment, most Republicans on Capitol Hill have argued that impeaching and convicting Trump following a Senate trial would only further divide the country.
"The impeachment power exists to protect the Nation from the harm that an incumbent president might inflict upon the Nation were he to remain in office, not to vindicate political grievances after a president has left office," Graham said in his letter to Schumer on Sunday.
In a statement released after the House vote last week, current Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) urged lawmakers to focus on the transfer of power from the Trump administration to the Biden administration.
“Given the rules, procedures, and Senate precedents that govern presidential impeachment trials, there is simply no chance that a fair or serious trial could conclude before President-elect Biden is sworn in next week. The Senate has held three presidential impeachment trials. They have lasted 83 days, 37 days, and 21 days respectively,” he wrote.