Bring on trial, Trump goads Democrats

US President Donald Trump pressed his Republican allies on Thursday to exert rigid control of his Senate trial and ensure a swift exoneration, a day after he was impeached in a historic rebuke by the Democrat-led House of Representatives.

A bitter fight looms over the coming trial, expected to begin as early as the second week of January, with Senate leaders already drawing battle lines over the evidence that will be allowed.

But its fate was left in limbo late on Thursday when the Senate's powerful Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, signaled the standoff with Democrats over trial particulars would continue into the new year.

"We remain at an impasse on these logistics," McConnell said on the floor, as he announced the Senate had completed its business until January.

Trump seized on the uncertainty to attack House Democrats for seeking to demand key witnesses or dictate how McConnell should run the process.

"I want an immediate trial!" he boomed on Twitter.

Trump is charged with abuse of office and obstruction of Congress but Democrats, who led the three-month House investigation, are threatening to delay sending the articles of impeachment to the Senate until they are reassured the process will be fair.

"I got Impeached last night without one Republican vote being cast with the Do Nothing Dems on their continuation of the greatest Witch Hunt in American history," Trump tweeted. "Now the Do Nothing Party want to Do Nothing with the Articles & not deliver them to the Senate, but it's Senate's call!"

Trump, the third US president to be impeached, suggested that the Democrats would "lose by default" if they decided not to show up at a date determined by the Senate.

Numbers game

The impeachment stems from what Democrats say was Trump's threat to withhold aid to Ukraine in a bid to pressure Kiev to investigate the son of former US vice-president Joe Biden, a potential rival of Trump in the 2020 race. Biden's son, Hunter Biden, has had business dealings in Ukraine.

As for how it plays out, the impeachment could be a numbers game. Experts say McConnell has to make sure that there are no more than two Republican defections.

If three Republicans break, the deciding vote will come from the Supreme Court's chief justice, said Clay Ramsay, a researcher at the University of Maryland. And if four break, the Democrats win.

It remains unknown how the impeachment will impact the 2020 elections.

Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a statement after Wednesday's House vote that history was "made today, but not in a way Democrats had hoped".

"With this vote, (House Speaker) Nancy Pelosi and her fellow impeachment crusaders have ensured the reelection of Trump and a return of a Republican majority in the House," said McDaniel.

In the opinion of Trump supporters－many of them rural, working class white people－the stakes are high. They strongly believe Trump is fighting against what they see as Washington elites－backed by mainstream media, urban liberals and runaway political correctness－who want to deprive them of their entire way of life, including their constitutional right to bear arms.

Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Darrell West said that Trump's base has worried "about the left wing taking over, and see Trump as working hard to stop the left".

"He has very strong support from his base and this will continue through the 2020 election," West said.

But at the same time, Trump will need more than his base to clinch the White House in 2020. "He will need suburban voters and independent people to cast their ballots for him," he said.

Some experts say impeachment won't make much of a difference in the 2020 elections.

"We're at an extraordinary historical moment－this sort of impeachment has only happened twice before－and yet it's unlikely that it will change anyone's mind," said Christopher Galdieri, an assistant professor at Saint Anselm College, adding that Trump's best course of action would be to do nothing that would alienate any wavering Republican senators.

Xinhua, agencies and <span class="epaper-contributor">Ai Heping</span> in New York contributed to this story.