It is a sad and sorry day when lawmakers can’t vote their conscience without fearing for their physical safety, but this is the day we have arrived at. When an armed mob lurched to the Capitol chanting “Hang Mike Pence” and “Fuck Mike Pence” and Pence had to run for his life through the tunnels under Washington, our culture turned yet another corner into the land of the lost.
Therefore it is unsurprising that calls for a secret ballot during the second Trump impeachment trial are being made.
If Republican senators had integrity and if Trump supporters were peaceful, this wouldn’t be necessary. But they’re not and they’re not. So a secret ballot offers a better chance of convicting Trump and ensuring he’ll never again be president.
— Robert Reich (@RBReich) January 23, 2021
A secret ballot would probably convict and ban Trump 100-0. But I guess it’s not in the cards, though it’d be the fairest way to proceed — as with any ordinary jury. https://t.co/xgU19XxgjG
— Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) January 23, 2021
In writing rules for impeachment trial, @SenSchumer should include that vote will be secret ballot. @SenateGOP talking about political considerations instead of Constitutional. For real verdict, @SenateDems should give cover. Adopting this rule can be approved with no GOP votes.
— Kurt "Masks Save Lives" Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) January 23, 2021
There is a question whether it would take no GOP votes.
You are forgetting art. I, Section 5, cl. 4: the Yeas and Nays of the Members of either House on any question shall, at the Desire of one fifth of those Present, be entered on the Journal.
IOW, you need 80 votes to keep the vote secret, not 51
— Peter Rodino's Ghost (@rodino_1974) January 24, 2021
Whether it’s possible or not and whether it’s probable are two different things. One school of thought says that GOP senators should be on the record and held accountable. The other is their safety and the right to vote their conscience without fear of reprisal — which, prior to January 6, was pretty much baked into our democracy. But that was before the MAGAverse began rampaging. Axios:
Much of the party’s base — including conservative talk radio, TV and social media — are spoiling to fight for Trump in exile.
- On top of that, Trump himself is threatening to literally split the party in two with the creation of a new MAGA Party or Patriot Party, the WashPost reports.
When I asked Trump adviser Jason Miller about those plans, he issued a warning to Republican senators who are weighing whether to convict Trump in next month’s impeachment trial:
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“The president has made clear his goal is to win back the House and Senate for Republicans in 2022,” Miller said. “There’s nothing that’s actively being planned regarding an effort outside of that, but it’s completely up to Republican senators if this is something that becomes more serious.”
Republican senators are between a rock and a hard place but they put themselves there. If they had done the ethical thing and removed Trump the first time, we wouldn’t be looking at any of this, 400,000 dead from COVID-19, the election challenges, riot in the Capitol, none of it.
They could have saved everyone a *lot* of trouble if they’d had the guts to remove him last year. As for the ones who are afraid of Trmp: he doesn’t have the power now that he had even three weeks ago. Stop lying to the media and to voters, and tell them how they’ve been lied to for years.
And FFS, expel Hawley and Cruz.
This pisses me off. They always get an out. Liars.
There’s no real out of this situation. All their exits will cost them something, deny it though they will.
I’m scratching my head at the pukes who are screaming for evidence and witnesses (of which there are plenty) when a year ago they refused to hear witnesses or view evidence. The hypocrisy is stunning.
Less stunned myself…they’re stalling.
And yet … I saw the media spinning this as a “dilemma for Democrats.” Because, of course.
A Republican President and his acolytes, proposes, encourages, abets, and facilitates an armed insurrection , directly causing an armed attack on Congress itself, in which defending police are killed and severely injured, and it’s somehow a ‘Democrat’s problem’?
That ‘liberal media’ bias again?
If theyre afraid of voting their conscience, should they be senators? Maybe they’re too afraid of exposing their morals.
They want it done in secret so they can get him convicted so this way if nobody knows how anyone voted they can just rig this vote too .liars cheats. Criminals that’s all that’s in congress now ,save very few
Revise that statement to apply to the Republicans–and Gabbard–before I agree. The majority of Congress are nothing like those things or Trump would be dictator right now.
Their salaries are paid by taxpayers and I think it is time to stop their funding if we are not allowed to see how they vote against half the country. It’s time they remember Government does NOT have any money except what it takes from taxpayers.
The problem is that the forever Tompador idiots will block any attempt at a secret ballt because they want to let everyone know that they’re still in thrall to the Lord of Mar a Lago