House Impeaches Trump; Senate Braces for Trial

"This will set a dangerous precedent where impeachment becomes the norm, rather than the exception," warned GOP Rep. Steve Chabot, who was a House manager during the Clinton impeachment.

"If they don't agree with the president, take it to court," he said. "Let the third branch decide, they're the refs."

As the House debated the articles on one side of the Capitol, senators on the other half prepared themselves for trial.

Trump had declined to participate in the House's impeachment inquiry, claiming—through White House counsel Pat Cipollone—that he was deprived of due process rights generally not given during investigations. Rather, the president is turning to the friendlier Republican Senate as a forum to refute the charges.

Legal experts, like University of Missouri's Frank Bowman, author of "High Crimes and Misdemeanors: A History of Impeachment for the Age of Trump," have already come in to brief Senate Democrats on trial processes and procedures.

For Republicans, Cipollone has been coming to Senate lunches to talk about the upcoming trial.

And Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said that he and Cipollone will coordinate on the trial rules and procedures, a comment that has raised red flags for House and Senate Democrats.

"Since when do any of the Trump people act in a fair way," Senate Judiciary Democrat Mazie Hirono said, when asked if she trusts Cipollone to help run a fair trial.

McConnell is reportedly eyeing a short Senate trial, whereas Trump is seeking a chance to fully refute the articles of impeachment. The president wants to call witnesses and introduce documents that he believes will clear his name.

Senate Democrats also want witnesses, like acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and former national security adviser John Bolton, to testify during the trial. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer over the weekend called for McConnell to call those witnesses. McConnell rejected that demand, calling it "dead wrong."

But a trial could be delayed, at least for a few days. The Washington Post reported Wednesday that House Democrats are internally discussing the possibility of Pelosi withholding the articles for impeachment from the Senate, as leverage for witnesses or other trial procedures.

Pelosi said at a press conference shortly after the vote that the articles wouldn't be sent to the Senate Wednesday night, as the impeachment managers—or House members picked to argue for impeachment during the trial—hadn't been selected.

But she did say that the trial is "a serious matter."

"The majority leader of the U.S. Senate, for the foreman of the jury, to be in cahoots with the lawyers of the accused, that doesn't sound right to us," Pelosi said.