The Chief Justice presides over a trial involving the president, but the Senate makes the rules. And the Senate is controlled by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who regards what the House has done with contempt.
You’re in Cocaine Mitch’s court, now.
Politico outlined Democrats’ new idea, citing constitutional lawyer Laurence Tribe (but, interestingly, not the Constitution itself). Pelosi hopes to pressure McConnell into holding a “fair trial” — this, after she and her party broke every relevant House rule and precedent, and several Amendments in the Bill of Rights, all in the name of their “sole Power of Impeachment.”
They forget that a “fair trial” applies to the accused, not the accuser, and has since 1215.
Set aside, for the moment, that holding onto the articles of impeachment would contradict everything Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and the Democrats have said for weeks about the “urgency” of impeachment. They needed to stop him before he could “cheat in the next election,” we were told — that’s why the House could not wait for the courts to rule on the White House’s resistance to stop congressional subpoenas.
All of that would be exposed as a lie.
If Pelosi refuses to submit the articles of impeachment to the Senate, McConnell can convene the Senate anyway, summon the Chief Justice, and swear in the Senators as jurors. Democrats can boycott, but they can’t stop the trial.
McConnell can then propose to dismiss the charges or even hold a vote to acquit the president.
Pelosi can hide the articles of impeachment in Adam Schiff’s basement forever, and it won’t make a bit of difference.
Case closed.
This is abuse of power and obstruction of congress.
It doesn’t seem like its possible for Dems to actually get what they want, but what they hope is they’ll taint the Senate as “unfair”. But the polling hasn’t moved on this stuff for the Dems. Doubt what plays out going forward makes a difference either.
Send Nazi an egg.
If he’s impeached, “the Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments”.
If they can’t try his impeachment (here because of procedural games), is he in fact impeached?
If I’m indicted by a prosecutor, and the prosecutor doesn’t show up for my trial, isn’t my case dismissed?
Mitch has 'the rule of law' on his side - and he's gonna use it. Good man - thank God he's there...
“You’re in Cocaine Mitch’s court, now.”
What does that mean?
The Senate should proceed with the trial as the article discusses or the Senate should vote on tomorrow and pass a binding rule that no articles of impeachment are valid unless presented to the Senate within 10 days of passage by Congress.
Democrats doing to the Senate what they accuse President Trump of doing.
They’re already breaking their constitutional oath to send impeachment onto the Senate tor trial.
These people have just shown the American people all their lofty talk about the rule of law, accountability and respect for the constitutional order don’t apply to them.
They’re Democrats. They make it up as they go along.
The Constitution says that the House impeaches and the Senate tries.
It does NOT say that the House impeaches and then keeps it to themselves.
I think the Republicans would be on good ground to go to the Supreme Court to demand that the House turn over the articles of impeachment to the Senate per the Constitution, or else the Supreme Court would invalidate the articles of impeachment as unconstitutional.
If the Democrats refuse to submit the articles of impeachment to the Senate, the Supreme Court could nullify them and President Trump would go down in history as not having been impeached. If they do submit them to the Senate, the Senate would acquit, leaving Trump scarred but the Democrats blocked.
-PJ
Charge and arrest demonrat traitors!
As I said on another thread tonight...
This is going to get interesting quick!
I don’t see how Justice Roberts can preside over and judge a trial in the senate with his extreme conflict of interest after appointing the FISC judges that went on to sign off on the bogus FISA warrants to spy on our President...
The House voted for impeachment.
I see no place in the Constitution where the Speaker must submit it.
Will the house seek also to impeach the Senate? I wonder if a democrat president wasup, if he would sendthe deep state to siege senators to vote for i peach,ent, threaten them?
To clarify. Submission is not required.
It is a House action the Senate must respond to.
Constitution.
Let the loser dem pols have their little pyrrhic victory. It means nothing. Tomorrow the slate is wiped clean leaving nothing but lots of egg on the dem pol faces.
They did this to themselves so they have no one to blame. Sore losers who stay butthurt for years and never get over it really do need rehab of some kind. I’d say permanent inpatients at a qualified psychiatric hospital with lots of Thorazine would be an appropriate response to what the House dems did.
I think if the articles of impeachment are voted on and passed, then the President is impeached. It then becomes part of the Congressional Record. Once impeached the Senate has full control of the trial. It does not matter if the House has officially transmitted the articles of impeachment to the Senate.
This whole shamwow process is not an Impeachment, it is an impeachment inquiry. If there were any later votes to actually impeach, I am not aware of it and I stand corrected.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/31/politics/house-impeachment-inquiry-resolution-floor-vote/index.html
“The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments.”
And how would they proceed to act on some vague exclamation “The President is impeached “ without seeing the particulars...
That’s been my thought as well.
I’m certain Cocaine Mitch and the rest of the (harumph) “Senators” have TV just like we do. And they already know what the articles of impeachment are.
So, they can simply move ahead and Pelosi Galore can hold onto her articles as long as she wants.
Because doing that doesn’t mean anything.