Posted on 01/13/2021 1:45:28 PM PST by The Pack Knight
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has rejected a plan to reconvene the Senate in an emergency session to hold trial over an impeachment article against President Trump in the House.
McConnell press secretary Doug Andres confirmed a report that the Kentucky Republican would not sanction such a move on Wednesday.
Without the emergency session, the Senate is due back in session on Jan. 19., so McConnell’s decision all but kills a Democrat-led effort to oust Trump from office before his term is up and President-elect Joe Biden is sworn in on Jan. 20. A trial over the impeachment article is unlikely to conclude within such a short time.
Democrats have proposed holding the trial over Trump’s impeachment well-into Biden’s presidency. Michael Luttig, a former judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, slammed the idea on Tuesday, asserting that impeaching and removing a president after he left office is “unconstitutional.”
“It appears that even if the House of Representatives impeaches President Trump this week, the Senate trial on that impeachment will not begin until after Trump has left office and President-Elect Biden has become president on Jan. 20,” Luttig wrote in The Washington Post. “That Senate trial would be unconstitutional.”
Luttig continued:
Once Trump’s term ends on Jan. 20, Congress loses its constitutional authority to continue impeachment proceedings against him — even if the House has already approved articles of impeachment.Therefore, if the House of Representatives were to impeach the president before he leaves office, the Senate could not thereafter convict the former president and disqualify him under the Constitution from future public office.
The reason for this is found in the Constitution itself. Trump would no longer be incumbent in the Office of the President at the time of the delayed Senate proceeding and would no longer be subject to “impeachment conviction” by the Senate, under the Constitution’s Impeachment Clauses. Which is to say that the Senate’s only power under the Constitution is to convict — or not — an incumbent president.
On Monday, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), a moderate, criticized the ongoing impeachment push and noted that any impeachment article passed in the House will likely not have enough support in the Senate.
“I think, my arithmetic, that means we have 19 Republicans. I don’t see that. And I think the House should know that also. We have been trying to send that message over. They know the votes aren’t there. You would think that they would do that,” Manchin said on Monday.
“I think this is so ill-advised for Joe Biden to be coming in, trying to heal the country, trying to be the president of all the people, when we’re going to be so divided and fighting again. Let the judicial system do its job,” he added. “And then, we’re a country of the rule of law. That’s the bedrock of who we are. Let that take its place. Let the investigations go on. Let the evidence come forth, and then we will go forward from there. There’s no rush to do this impeachment now. We can do it later if they think it’s necessary.”
He has plenty of time to change his mind. He’s waiting for the second check to clear.
You can’t remove a president who is not the president.
2 + 2 = 4.
They cannot remove Trump and cannot bar him from running for future office under the US Constitution.
Game over.
Maybe the Turtle stuck his head out of the mud and looked around. He doesn’t want to end up on top of a fence post.
Clarifying the more likely scenario.
Bump!
I think some of it is psyops. I’m not happy with the
way Mitch seemingly didn’t want to help Trump this last
several months, but if he does the right thing here
I need to recant my criticism based on my view that
he was going to sell us out.
After seeing how Ryan and he did the first two years
of Trump’s presidency, it wouldn’t not have been out of
character to see him do it here.
Still, if he does right here, I need to give him kudos
on that point, not rip him.
We don’t like him, but Cocaine Mitch is extremely smart.
He gave us the judges, tax cuts & more.
Thank you Mitch !
He just wants to humiliate Trump as much as he can without sticking his neck out. (PUN INTENDED)
House Republicans who just voted to impeach today:
Gonzalez (OH)
Rice (SC)
Newhouse (WA)
Meijer (MI)
Kinzinger (IL)
Katko (NY)
Cheney (WY)
Herrera Beutler (WA)
Upton (MI)
Valadao (CA)
He already is on top of a fence post, as of the 20th. He’ll need some help getting down, and for that he cannot completely alienate Trump’s base.
Thank him for nothing, he only didn’t do it, because he knows the consequences.
did any D’s vote ‘NO’?
No, now they will just move for Criminal Charges.
Good point.
He’s very slick and sly. Get the headlines speaking against Trump, but behind the scenes, delay and divert the attention of the DC political mob.
To survive in politics (soon literally) you have to be a shape-shifter. He’s America’s Tallyrand
“There are no principles, only events. ” ― Charles Maurice de Talleyrand
Turtle is a weasel but not Jim Jones.
Why would Trump ever run again? He would have to be insane and he is not.
I bet he will regret that move.
Cause it’s not going to make up for past sins.
Not by a long shot.
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