共和国总统乔·拜登本周，随着参议院开始对前总统进行弹劾审判，他迫切要求从冠状病毒大流行中解脱出来的努力面临着迫在眉睫的威胁唐纳德·特朗普2月9日。
拜登在最近几周对弹劾的发展保持沉默，选择公开关注他推动新一轮新冠肺炎救助立法以及他在各种问题上采取的一系列行政行动。但审判可能会吸引参议院的大部分注意力——以及美国公众的大部分注意力——尽管立法者计划在上午和下午分别进行立法工作。
在围绕新冠肺炎救助计划的一系列行政行动和谈判中，拜登几乎没有评论他认为他的前任应该如何为他在1月6日国会大厦起义中的角色负责。
但他明确表示，他认为参议院应该向前迈进——即使特朗普现在已经下台——他在周三发表的一次采访中表示，如果在众议院上个月投票弹劾特朗普后，参议院不举行审判，那将是“滑稽的”。
“他被众议院弹劾了，必须向前推进，否则这将是一场闹剧，”拜登在参议院说《人物》访谈。
上周，45名共和党参议员投票认为，举行选举是违宪的弹劾对一位不再执政的总统的审判，在民主党控制的参议院中，人数不足以阻止审判的进行。
因涉嫌煽动叛乱而在弹劾条款上判特朗普有罪，将需要三分之二的参议员，包括至少17名共和党人。
拜登说:“可能不会有17名共和党人改变他们的观点，对弹劾定罪。”“但我认为有一定的基本标准是很重要的，人们至少能够看到发生了什么来做出自己的判断。我不是要找什么报应。”
1月13日，10名国会共和党议员与所有众议院民主党人一起投票弹劾特朗普。
为了让拜登的COVID救助计划在正常的立法程序中获得国会的一致通过，他需要10名共和党参议员的支持。民主党人可以寻求一条更复杂、更具限制性的途径，以简单多数通过该法案；他们已经在平行轨道上开始了被称为“和解”的进程。
本周还不清楚白宫将如何反对弹劾审判，这可能会引起新闻媒体的极大关注。
周三，当被问及拜登是否担心参议院的审判会削弱他上任初期享有的势头时，白宫新闻秘书珍·普萨基(Jen Psaki)表示，白宫“相信”国会议员“有能力同时走路和嚼口香糖”——特别是在缓解冠状病毒方面。
“我认为总统已经说得很清楚了，”普萨基告诉记者。“向美国人民提供救济迫在眉睫，众议院和参议院尽快通过这项法案非常重要。”
上周早些时候，拜登在一份声明中说美国有线电视新闻网的简短采访他认为审判“必须进行”，而且“如果不进行，效果会更差”
"我在回答这个问题，从某种意义上说，审判应该继续吗？"拜登告诉《人物》，解释了他对CNN的回应。“现在说‘不’，在——我不认为那是——这是对制度的嘲弄。”
拜登努力不表明特朗普是否应该被弹劾或定罪的立场，尽管他在国会起义两天后称特朗普“不适合任职”。他一再表示，他将在国会议员认为特朗普应该如何承担责任的问题上听从他们的意见，将他的注意力——至少是公开的——引向面前的任务。
拜登在1月8日宣誓就职前12天说:“如果我们还有6个月的时间，我们应该尽一切努力让他下台——再次弹劾他，试图唤起第25修正案，无论如何都要让他下台。”“但我现在关注的是，我们在20日成为总统和副总统，并尽快推进我们的议程。”
'Farcical' to not hold Senate impeachment trial for Trump: Biden
President Joe Biden this week faced a looming threat to his push for urgent relief from the coronavirus pandemic, with the Senate set to kick off an impeachment trial for former President Donald Trump on Feb. 9.
Biden has generally remained quiet on impeachment developments in recent weeks, choosing to focus publicly on his push for a new round of COVID-19 relief legislation and a series of executive actions he's taken on a variety of issues. But the trial was likely to suck up much of the Senate's focus -- as well as a chunk of the American public's -- even as lawmakers planned to split their days with legislative work in the mornings and the trial in the afternoons.
Amid a slew of executive actions and negotiations over a COVID-19 relief package, Biden has made few comments on how he thought his predecessor should be held accountable for his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol.
But he has made clear he thinks the Senate should move forward -- even with Trump now out of office -- saying in an interview published Wednesday that it would be "farcical" if the body did not hold a trial after the House had voted last month to impeach Trump.
"He was impeached by the House, and it has to move forward, otherwise it would come off as farcical," Biden said in the interview with People.
Forty-five Republican senators voted last week that it would be unconstitutional to hold an impeachment trial for a president no longer in office, short of the number needed to stop it from taking place in the Democrat-controlled Senate.
Convicting Trump on the article of impeachment, for allegedly inciting the insurrection, would take two thirds of senators, including at least 17 Republicans.
"It's probably not likely to get 17 Republicans to change their view and convict an impeachment," Biden said. "But I think it's important that there be certain basic standards, that people at least are able to see what happened to make their own judgments. I'm not looking for any retribution."
Ten GOP members of Congress joined all House Democrats to vote to impeach Trump on Jan. 13.
For Biden's COVID relief package to pass the evenly split Congress through the regular legislative process, he would need the backing of 10 GOP senators. Democrats could pursue a more complicated and restrictive route to pass the measure with a simple majority; they have already begun that process, known as "reconciliation," on a parallel track.
And it remained unclear this week how the White House might counter-program against the impeachment trial, which will likely take up much of the news media's attention.
Pressed on Wednesday about whether Biden was concerned the Senate trial would undercut the momentum he has enjoyed during his initial days in office, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the White House was "confident" members of Congress "have the ability to walk and chew gum at the same time" -- particularly when it came to coronavirus relief.
"I think the president has been clear," Psaki told reporters. "There's an urgency to delivering relief to the American people, and it's important and vital that the House and Senate work quickly to get this bill passed."
Early last week, Biden said in a brief interview with CNN that he thought the trial "has to happen" and that there would be "a worse effect if it didn't happen."
"I was responding to the question, should in a sense the trial go forward?" Biden told People, explaining his response to CNN. "To say now, 'No,' after -- I don't think that's -- it makes a mockery of the system."
Biden has taken pains to not stake out a position on whether Trump should be impeached -- or convicted -- even as he called Trump "not fit to serve" two days after the Capitol insurrection. He has repeatedly said he would defer to members of Congress on how they thought Trump should be held accountable, directing his attention -- at least publicly -- to the task ahead.
“If we were six months out, we should be doing everything to get him out of office -- impeaching him again, trying to evoke the 25th Amendment, whatever it took to get him out of office,” Biden said on Jan. 8, 12 days before being sworn in. “But I am focused now on us taking control as president and vice president on the 20th and to get our agenda moving as quickly as we can.”
