The Senate’s coming impeachment fiasco

[Counselor706]

Capitol Hill is coming to grips with the essential weirdness of the Democrats' drive to remove President Trump from office after he leaves office. When the House passed a quickie impeachment article on Wednesday -- dispensing with the hundreds of hours of deliberation and due process that would precede a normal impeachment vote -- it was clear that the Senate would not have time to hold a trial for the president before the president leaves office five days from now, on January 20.

Remember that the primary purpose of an impeachment trial is to remove the convicted official from office. Here is the description of impeachment from Article II of the Constitution: "The president, vice president and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors." The Constitution gives the Senate "the sole power to try all impeachments" and says that "no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two thirds of the members present." If the official is convicted, the punishment "shall not extend further than to removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust or profit under the United States."

But the removal part will be off the table. The Senate trial will not begin until January 20 at the earliest, after President Trump leaves office. So Democrats propose to use impeachment to disqualify Trump from ever holding federal office again, which they say requires only a majority vote in the Senate. But the Constitution clearly requires a conviction before punishment, so two thirds of the Senate would have to convict former President Trump before he could be disqualified.

Finally, there is the political question. Some Democrats are clearly concerned by the prospect of a Trump impeachment trial consuming the Senate in the first weeks of the Biden administration. During that time, the new president will need the Senate both to confirm his appointees and to consider his legislative agenda. Instead, they will be pondering the moot question of whether to vote to remove a president who has already left office, and then, if they do, whether they should bar that out-of-office president from ever holding federal office again.

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[KeithD]

Knowing that you obviously are worried and don't like this happening fully justifies it for me.

 

[ryan8558]

https://reason.com/2021/01/13/yes-t...mps-impeachment-trial-after-he-leaves-office/

 

[LLCox]

Impeaching trump in the Senate is the ONLY way for the repuke Party to even begin to save itself.

 

[CornusKousa]

Impeaching trump in the Senate is the ONLY way for the repuke Party to even begin to save itself.

I keep seeing this.....in the eyes of who???

Democrat voters?? LOL

Newsflash guys....(R) politicians aren't trying to piss off their voters by licking (D) ass.

The ones dumb enough to do so are going to find out why in the coming elections.

 

[LLCox]

Trump just lost the trumptards when he denounced them after the riot.

 

[WillJ8787]

Impeaching trump in the Senate is the ONLY way for the repuke Party to even begin to save itself.

They(REPUBLICANS) have backed themselves into a corner.

Totally their own doing...and many of us warned them 5 years.

Support for Impeachment and support.for a conviction is really the only way for the Repubs to rebuild a party of sanity and platform.

Either you follow the law and order (the fundamentals of a functioning Democracy and Republic) or you don't.

If you don't...you'll fall in line with the Magnificent Lie told by Trump and repeated by Repubs.

The Republican Party will implode if this route is taken....it already has begun.

 

[phrodeau]

Delay Biden’s cabinet. Delay relief legislation. Delay undoing any of Trump’s damage. Delay for as long as possible anything unpleasant to Republicans.

Amy Coney Barrett, from nomination to confirmation, four weeks.

 

[Veroe]

I worry about the precedent this sets, but feel that for inciting an insurrection against the legislative branch of the US government there should be consequences-serious ones despite how high the tensions are in this country, and one requiring more severe measures than just a censure.