Senate Prepares for Second Trump Impeachment Trial
Recently, The House of Representatives delivered an article of impeachment against Donald Trump to the Senate. The House voted to impeach Donald Trump on January 13 for inciting the violent insurrection at the Capitol on January 6 that left five dead.
While the article of impeachment has already been sent to the senate, the trial won’t start until February 8, a date Senate leaders Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell compromised on in order to give both the prosecution and defense time to draft and exchange legal briefs.
Biden, who has been reluctant to comment on the trial, welcomed the delay, saying it gives him an opportunity to “get up and running” on combating the pandemic.
No president has ever been impeached twice, and no president has been tried by the Senate after they have left office. Ten House Republicans joined Democrats to vote for the impeachment of Donald Trump during his most recent trial.
Although the Senate is now controlled by the democrats, 17 republicans would have to join the democrats in order for Trump to be convicted. However, many republican Senators have recently come out and voiced objection to the trial.
“Well first of all, I think the trial is stupid.” Senator Marco Rubio said. “The first chance I get to vote to end this trial, I will do it because I think it’s bad for America.”
Senate Republicans have also voiced displeasure over holding an impeachment trial for a man not currently holding public office. Senator Lindsey Graham wrote that the trial was “blatantly unconstitutional.”
Talking to a Houston news station, Senator John Cornyn of Texas also criticized the trial.
“Never before has there been a trial of a person who used to be president but is no longer president. And it just strikes me as a vindictive move, you know, say what you will about the president’s role in a speech he gave. He’s no longer president. He lost the election. That used to be punishment enough in our politics,” Cornyn says.
Mitt Romney, the sole republican to vote for Trump’s impeachment during his first impeachment trial last year, broke from his republican colleagues and expressed support for the upcoming trial.
“I believe that what is being alleged and what we saw, which is incitement to insurrection, is an impeachable offense,” he says. “If not, what is?” Romney adds.
If convicted, the Senate could hold another vote deciding whether or not Trump could ever run for federal elective office again, only needing a simple majority of 51 votes to pass. However, he would not lose the perks afforded to him by the Former President’s Act, such as a salary and security detail, because the bill stipulates the benefits be lost only if removed from office by impeachment.
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