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.”
This appears to be a good move by Mitch.
Sure does seem like some negotiating is going on.
“Never Biden. Never our President. Ever”
That’s right.
So let’s do what they do.
IMPEACH BIDEN
I mean, why wait?
Pelosi set the precedent. Start the impeachment calls on Day One.
No one deserves it more then the upcoming Thief In Chief.
“This impeachment is NOT about Trump running in 2024. He will be 78 years old. This is about shutting Trump up because what he is about to expose on these ANTI American POS Demonrats and RINOS”
He very well might run again. I would not rule it out.
As far as Trump releasing dirt. Time is up. No kraken.
The dems are impeaching him so the history books show him as the 1st President to be impeached twice. They don’t expect the Senate to do much although they will try to keep him from running again.
It was dead before it began !
What is up in the two Georgia Senate races ...
Any legal actions ?!?
“What a vindictive small minded little twit”
Revenge and Extortion are what the Mafia does.
She’s them, just like Papa.
I never said there would be fair elections. I said Trump or his son will run.
Biden can give all the speeches that his staffers wrote for him about reconciliation, unifying, healing, etc. But it will all be Halla words he is reading off a Teleprompter.
Ever the idiot, Manchin. No, you cannot.
Exactly, there is no declassification coming, no dirt, nothing.
If Trump resigns today with a nasty opus about a country he doesn’t recognize as America and just disappears can they still impeach him?
Biden COULD have said "Leave the guy alone". He could have said "Enough is enough". He could have said "it's not needed". Instead he purposely LET it happen.
If Trump runs again in 2024 he should pick the governor of SD as his running mate then resign after 2 years and let her serve two and half terms.🤔
Why would anyone uncritically believe anything that comes out of the New York Times???
We have reached the point where the Deep State publicly demands 2 + 2 = 5 and we have much less power to resist.
turtle is walking the fine line. he desperately wants to destroy Trump and us deplorables, but he knows about the 300,000 Georgia Trump voters who boycotted the gope for their treachery.
As of January 20, 2021 Donald J. Trump is our “President in Exile.”
Remember: McConnell’s wealth comes mostly from the CCP through his wife’s Chi-Com family.
China controls countries by bribing the leadership. This is how they control the natural resources of Africa.
I believe Meijer (MI) is a part of the Meijer family which runs the Meijer company.
Am EXTREMELY disappointed in him.
Terrible.
Didn’t he take amash seat?
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