Impeachment Today: Don’t Hold Your Breath Waiting for the Senate
Thursday’s hearings on the final wording for the proposed articles of impeachment provided yet another opportunity for Republicans to disrupt the process, denigrate the witnesses, and deny the existence of any misconduct by President Trump.
GOP members have gained the mic by purporting to advocate for changing a single word, then used their time to ramble on about everything but the term in question. At the end of the day they’ll make media pronouncements about how the hearing was a waste of time.
A snip from Mark Sumner’s early morning post at Daily Kos:
So far, Republicans have moved to strike the entire first article, after Jim Jordan reduced every witness statement to hearsay. And Debbie Lesko engaged in some prolonged screaming about the need for a “minority hearing” day in which they could bring in those witnesses they want—such as the whistleblower, Hunter Biden, and the Loch Ness monster, with a lot of claims about how corrupt Democrats are.
Congressman Jim Jordan is pretending the assistance to Ukraine was released for reasons not even the White House claimed, and says Ukraine never promised to make an announcement, when they absolutely did.
Republicans are making a concerted effort to mislead. “High Crimes and Misdemeanors” is pointedly NOT about statutory crimes. In fact, the Constitution doesn’t provide for impeachment for ordinary crimes; they must be “high.” Impeachable wrongdoing must relate to abuse of office.
https://twitter.com/PhilippeReines/status/1204854575636926465?s=20
Eventually the entire committee will vote along party lines to send the articles to the full House, which will likely vote on a day ending in ‘y.’ (Tuesday or Wednesday are safe bets.)
Then, nothing will happen in the Senate until next year, possibly until after the college football championship bowl games have been played. Priorities, y’know.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell apparently can’t guarantee that he’ll get 51 votes for an acquittal without witnesses, so it appears the Senate will have to hear some testimony.
Here’s reporting from Joan McCarter:
According to Sen. John Cornyn, it “would make more sense” to vote on the articles of impeachment themselves, with the 67-vote threshold for conviction and removal, rather than trying to dismiss, which could be blocked by 50 votes (since the vice president doesn’t get a tie-breaking vote and a tie would fail). There’s a risk to trying to “decide this on a 51-vote threshold, with the potential tie and all the recriminations that would flow from that,” Cornyn said.
Another Republican senator told CNN—anonymously, for some reason—the same thing about McConnell’s plans, that he would go for the vote that was more or less a sure thing rather than trying to make it go away more quickly at risk of failure.
My advice is to not get too worked up about the Senate portion of this process; there is no way in hell enough Republicans will oppose the President, regardless of the evidence.
For now, the asterisk by Trump’s name in the history books and the sullying of his reputation are the best we can hope for.
The constant invoking of his high crimes, misdemeanors, and malice toward those not in on the action should prove to be a strike against enough of his accomplices to change the national political landscape come 2020.
Here’s Charles M. Blow in the New York Times:
It is hard for me to be out in public or on social media without being peppered with questions by people with strained faces about whether there is any chance that the Senate will vote to convict Donald Trump if the House of Representatives impeaches him.
I have to constantly remind people that impeachment in the House is the victory. The Senate is a lost cause, and has been on this issue since Trump rose to office.
The Senate has considered articles of impeachment against two other presidents and refused to convict and remove both times. This time is not likely to be any different. In that sense, impeachment by the House is the strongest rebuke America has ever been willing to give a president.
Trump deserves at least that.
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https://twitter.com/NickLaparra/status/1205116902936317952?s=20
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Lead image via Congresswoman Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA)