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<\/p>\nWASHINGTON \u2014 Lawmakers on Sunday burrowed into dueling positions over the impending impeachment trial of former President Donald J. Trump, deepening the schisms in an already divided Senate a day before the House will deliver its charge to lawmakers there.<\/p>\n
Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, the only Republican who voted to convict Mr. Trump in his first impeachment trial, said on Sunday that he believed the former president had committed an impeachable offense, and that the effort to try him even after he left office was constitutional.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe that what is being alleged and what we saw, which is incitement to insurrection, is an impeachable offense,\u201d Mr. Romney said on \u201cState of the Union\u201d on CNN. \u201cIf not, what is?\u201d<\/p>\n
But even as Mr. Romney signaled his openness to convicting Mr. Trump, other Senate Republicans made clear that they opposed even the idea of a trial and would try to dismiss the charge before it began. Taken together, the comments underscored the rift that the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6 and the ensuing fallout have created in the Republican conference, as senators weighed whether they would pay a steeper political price for breaking with the former president or for failing to.<\/p>\n
Though the House will transmit the article of impeachment on Monday, Senate leaders agreed on Friday to delay the trial for two weeks, giving President Biden time to install his cabinet and Mr. Trump\u2019s team time to prepare a defense. But the plan also guarantees that the trial will dominate Mr. Biden\u2019s crucial first days in office, and it could inflame partisan tensions even as the president is pushing a message of unity.<\/p>\n
Some Senate Republicans, including Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the minority leader, have grown increasingly worried that if they do not intervene to distance themselves from Mr. Trump, their ties to the former president could hurt the party\u2019s political fortunes for years. Others, skirting the question of whether Mr. Trump committed an impeachable offense, have argued that holding a Senate trial for a president who has already left office would be unconstitutional, and would further divide the nation.<\/p>\n
Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida, called holding a trial \u201cstupid\u201d and \u201ccounterproductive,\u201d likening it to \u201ctaking a bunch of gasoline and pouring it on top of the fire.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first chance I get to vote to end this trial," he said, \u201cI\u2019ll do it because I think it\u2019s really bad for America.\u201d<\/p>\n
In an interview on \u201cFox News Sunday\u201d with Chris Wallace, Mr. Rubio compared the transition of power to that of President Richard M. Nixon.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIn hindsight, I think we would all agree that President Ford\u2019s pardon was important for the country to be able to move forward,\u201d Mr. Rubio said, \u201cand history held Richard Nixon quite accountable for what he did as a result.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked if he thought Mr. Trump had committed an impeachable offense, Senator Mike Rounds, Republican of South Dakota, called it \u201ca moot point\u201d and argued that pursuing an impeachment trial against a former president would be both unconstitutional and a waste of time.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we start working on an impeachment, which it looks like we\u2019re going to end up doing, we\u2019ve only got a couple of weeks here in which to work actually through and allow this president an opportunity to form a cabinet,\u201d Mr. Rounds said on \u201cMeet the Press\u201d on NBC. \u201cA lot of us would prefer to maybe work through those issues instead.\u201d<\/p>\n
The riot inside the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, Jan. 6,\u00a0followed a rally at which President Trump made an inflammatory speech\u00a0to his supporters, questioning the results of the election. Here\u2019s a look at what happened and at the ongoing fallout:<\/p>\n