After storm on Capitol Hill, Trump awaits second impeachment



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Democrats appear determined to remove Donald Trump from office. Future nominations could be denied. But Republicans would also have to participate.

Donald Trump with a raised fist.  He hasn't won anything in a long time.

Donald Trump with a raised fist. He hasn’t won anything in a long time.

Photo: Keystone

Nancy Pelosi, the powerful Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives, number three in political rank after the president and vice president, seems determined to hold Donald Trump accountable for Wednesday’s Capitol storm. On Friday, Pelosi issued a threat that can hardly be retracted: If Trump does not resign “immediately” or if his deputy, Mike Pence, does not initiate impeachment proceedings under the 25th Amendment to the Constitution immediately, then Congress will initiate a second process. impeachment against Trump.

Pelosi and the head of the Senate Democrats, Chuck Schumer, had already made these demands on Thursday. But Pelosi has now significantly increased the pressure with the word “immediately.”

Pelosi will not seriously assume that Trump or Pence will comply with her request. So far, in any case, Pence apparently hasn’t even responded to Schumer and Pelosi’s request for a call back. He will make no move to spoil it with Trump, or better, with his millions of followers. Some of them already think that Pence is a traitor. On Thursday night he fulfilled his constitutional duty in Congress and formally announced and thus confirmed Joe Biden’s electoral victory. Trump called Pence “weak” because of this, and many Trump supporters found Pence’s behavior outrageous.

Pence would have to convene the cabinet and obtain a majority for Trump’s inability to hold office. There is supposed to be a debate among the ministers about it, but no one has dared to publicly declare that they want to remove Trump from office. Two who could have raised their hands preferred to resign. The Minister of Education, Betsy deVos, and the Minister of Transport, Elaine Chao. But as long as the pennies don’t move, nothing moves.

Therefore, the House of Representatives will almost certainly initiate a new impeachment trial on Monday, several US media report. There could be a vote on this in the middle of the week.

After a three-and-a-half-hour conference call with Democrats in the House of Representatives, Pelosi said that “members hope the president will step down immediately.” In the event that he doesn’t do that, she has instructed the Rules Committee to “be prepared.” The Committee is a kind of rules of procedure committee in the House of Representatives. You must prepare for all eventualities.

If, for example, Pence and the cabinet give in and declare Trump incapacitated, Trump could contradict the decision. Then it would be up to parliamentarians to declare Trump incapable of fulfilling “the duties and obligations of his office.” If this does not happen, the draft resolutions must be prepared for the House by the Rules Commission, which apparently is already being worked on.

A first draft of the impeachment resolution was released on Friday. Consequently, Trump should be accused of “inciting an uprising.” Called by Trump, thousands of Trump supporters headed to Capitol Hill on Wednesday after the president’s speech in front of the White House. There they allegedly participated in “violent, deadly, destructive and rebellious acts.” Trump thus threatened the “integrity of the democratic system.” He had shown that he “would pose a threat to national security, democracy and the constitution” if allowed to remain in office.

17 Republicans would have to defeat the Senate

The prosecution procedures are vaguely reminiscent of legal procedures. The House of Representatives acts as the prosecution. The Senate as a court. The House of Representatives collects evidence, formulates charges, and votes on them. A simple majority is sufficient to bring the impeachment to the Senate. The Senate must then immediately examine the charges. Each of the 100 senators is a judge at the trial. If ultimately two-thirds of the senators approve, Trump is convicted and removed from office.

The entire process took many weeks in all three impeachment cases in US history. With a lot of effort and a lot of nonpartisan will, it would be possible to get Trump out of the Oval Office before his last day of work on January 20. The rules certainly allow for such a speedy impeachment. But it is not very likely. Especially not while the Senate is not formally in democratic hands.

For that to happen, the two new Democratic senators, Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, elected in Georgia last Tuesday, would have had to take their Senate seats, which will likely only happen after Biden is sworn in on January 20.

Even if everything has its new order after January 20, a two-thirds majority is still required to convict Trump. 17 of the 50 Republican senators would have to side with the Democrats. Politically speaking, Trump would be posthumously removed from office.

In the impeachment case that was concluded against Trump a year ago, there was only one Republican who switched sides: Mitt Romney of Utah. He has yet to make a clear statement on a new impeachment trial. Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska at least announced that he will examine the charges closely. On Friday, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, the first female senator, called for Trump’s resignation. But he kept open whether he would also support impeachment. Now he is considering whether he can remain a Republican, he said.

Initially, it doesn’t seem sensible to want to remove Trump from office after January 20. Then you are no longer in office. But he could be dishonorably fired afterwards like this. And with another vote, he could be barred from seeking public office again. A renewed Trump candidacy in 2024 would be off the table. Some Democrats hope to use the argument to win over moderate Republicans in the Senate who want to end the Trump chapter once and for all. Even if that doesn’t work, Trump would be the first president of the United States against whom the House would decide a second impeachment. There are hardly any more blemishes.

But Pelosi also worries about something else. How you can keep a crazy president away from the nuclear weapons codes. He told his party friends by letter that he had telephoned the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, to explore the possibilities of preventing an “unstable president from launching military hostilities” or “ordering a nuclear attack.”

It is not known how General Milley responded to this unusual request. At the Department of Defense, however, Pelosi’s move was not as well received, the New York Times reports. Trump is still the commander-in-chief. And while you are in office, the military must follow your legal instructions. Proactively removing the president from the chain of command would amount to a military coup.

President-elect Joe Biden has stayed out of it until now. Impeachment is still a question that he ultimately has to answer to Congress, not him, he said Friday. He was just happy with Trump’s announcement that he would not be attending the inauguration. That’s a good thing. “And probably one of the few things” that he and I will agree on. “

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