Monday will be another historical day, in an era of so many where the name Donald Trump is associated. Impeachment II begins. It is expected to be a farce, because the Republican party is like the infamous three monkeys, see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil — unless you can spin it into both siderism.
Rand Paul told Chris Wallace that he expects “to see the Trump defense play video of Maxine Waters telling crowds to mob Trump administration [officials] in restaurants and attack them. They’ll probably show clips of Cory Booker saying get up in their face of these congress people. You’ll probably see comments from [Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN)] wishing and celebrating the violence that happened to me when I had six ribs broken and part of my lung removed.”
And this is probably true. But it doesn’t matter. One thing and one thing alone matters and that is that Donald Trump gets barred from ever running for public office again and that can happen with a majority vote — not the 67 senators needed to convict Trump, which almost assuredly won’t happen, barring a miracle. But we don’t need a miracle, a simple majority will do the trick. Washington Post:
The Constitution envisions impeachment only as a tool for proceeding against a president while he remains in office. Impeachment is meant to protect the country, not punish the offender. But that needn’t be the end of efforts to prevent Trump from again holding federal office. There is another, little-known constitutional provision that can achieve precisely that without distorting the Constitution’s meaning.
Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, passed in the aftermath of the Civil War, bars Trump from holding another federal office if he is found to have “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against” the Constitution of the United States.
The finding could be accomplished by a simple majority vote of both houses, in contrast to the requirement in impeachment proceedings that the Senate vote to convict by a two-thirds majority. Congress would simply need to declare that Trump engaged in an act of “insurrection or rebellion” by encouraging the attack on the Capitol. Under the 14th Amendment, Trump could run for the White House again only if he were able to persuade a future Congress to, “by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.”
Section 3 was enacted to bar any “civil or military” officer who had served the United States before the Civil War from regaining a position of authority if he betrayed his country by supporting the Confederacy. During the height of Reconstruction, a number of former Confederates were, in fact, barred from holding office. It was only in 1872 that Congress once again allowed these men to serve the United States by passing an Amnesty Act with the requisite two-thirds majorities.
That’s it. That’s all we need to protect America. And the Republicans know this. Why do you think Liz Cheney feels so comfortable saying that Trump is not the future of the party? It’s because the obvious is obvious to her as well.
And here’s a little bonus stat: in a December poll 60% of those surveyed said that they didn’t want Trump to run again. The figures went even lower after January 6. A poll of Republicans on February 4 shows support dropping to 45% for him running in 2024 and 30% say he should be banned for life from running for office.
Trump will be finished after the impeachment trial ends, even if he’s acquitted again. And that’s all that matters.
TL;DR This is what gamblers mean when they say something is a mortal lock.
Trump is guilty. There’s no changing that. And I’m not so sure that all republicans will vote to aquit. One of the reasons republicans don’t want a trial. They know the clowns guilty and if the House shows a credible case these republicans might not want to vote against a guilty verdict. They have to win re-election at some point and the pro trump crowd is losing steam. If the House shows that going back to the election there was a conspiracy to overthrow the government it ain’t going to look good. And some of the current naysayers were the instigators in the conspiracy.
In what rational trial do you bring up things OTHER people did that have no bearing on the case at hand, especially when the relationship to what Trump did is like comparing shoplifting to murder?
When you’re trying to get off someone who believes they’re perfect and have never done anything wrong (at least when they’re around others).
This site is giving me so much trouble. My comments appear only intermittently & take forever to appear if they do so it’s not like I could have a conversation with anyone. It takes so long for a page to load I feel like I’m on AOL dial-up in the 90s, and half the time I get an “internal server error” and have to try again.
I am doing the best I can to get things fixed. We do not have endless amounts of cash here, it goes without saying. I can’t just hire some bigwig consultant to fix everything and kick him down several grand. We will get there, just be patient. This is the Little Political Blog That Could, never forget. Soon we’ll be able to say, “We did it we did it we did it.”
Ursula, I’ve had no problemo whatsoever with my comments getting onto your site and judging by the number of familiar names I see there, few others are having trouble too.
Your site’s excellent, fear not … and those of us who respect & appreciate your efforts will stick around no matter what.
I am experiencing the same issues, but I have chalked it up to having links in my comments. I no longer see the ability to vote on a comment.
You need to recognize that it’s not just you. Stop whining.
Great news
They need to introduce all the statements from people who have been arrested and charged, that they believed Trmp told them to do it (and some thought he’d go to the Capitol with them), and Mike Pence’s statement that Trmp asked him to do things that are unconstitutional.