Impeachment
February 17, 2021 — John Hinderaker
Guest hosting for Dan Proft last night on the Salem network, one of my guests was former Congressman Thaddeus McCotter, who talked about the decline of crony socialism. An optimistic take? Yes, and that is what we need these days: I did several monologues, of which this was the longest. It is about the future of impeachment, now that the Democrats have dramatically lowered the bar. It may not be
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February 15, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
After his acquittal by the Senate, Donald Trump called the proceeding “yet another phase of the greatest witch hunt in the history of our Country.” Trump is wrong. The second impeachment was no witch hunt. In January 2020, at the time of the first impeachment trial, Trump was riding high. The Democrats wanted to knock him back a peg. In January 2021, the Democrats would have been content to see
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February 14, 2021 — John Hinderaker
Now that impeachment is just one more card in the political deck, to be played by whichever party controls the House of Representatives, the question naturally arises: what should Republicans do when they retake control of the House, very likely in 2022? Lindsay Graham warns that if the Democrats could impeach Donald Trump with the false assertion that he incited violence, a far stronger claim along the same lines can
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February 13, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
Today, Sen. Richard Burr joined six other Republicans in voting to convict President Trump of an impeachable offense. I understand the vote of the other six and consider it defensible, though not how I would have voted. Unlike the other six, however, Burr previously voted that the trial should not proceed because it is unconstitutional to impeach a president who is no longer in office. But now, Burr has voted
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February 13, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
During his presentation to the Senate, House impeachment manager Rep. Joaquin Castro showed footage of Mike Pence moving away from the angry mob that attacked the Capitol. Castro unctuously declared, “Mike Pence is not a traitor to this country — he is a patriot.” Before last month, did any Democrat ever suggest that Mike Pence is a patriot? I daresay none did, until he became a prop in the impeachment
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February 12, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
The defense of Donald Trump at his impeachment trial got off to a rocky start earlier this week. There’s no denying that. Today, however, the defense team came back strong in its closing argument. Trump’s lawyers used only about two and half hours of their allotted 16 to respond to the House managers’ case. That was enough to demolish it and to show the dishonesty of the managers’ presentation. Below
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February 12, 2021 — John Hinderaker
I rarely look at the New York Times, since it abandoned any pretense of being a real newspaper years ago. Still, I was shocked when I saw the Times’s online front page a little while ago. Here is a screen shot of the top of the page: Trump’s defense is “incendiary”? I guess that means his lawyers aren’t going along with the absurd charge against him. And by “reframing Trump’s
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February 11, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
In making their case to the Senate, the House impeachment managers are focusing on the Capitol riot itself rather than on Donald Trump’s responsibility, if any, for it. Yesterday, Senators watched video of a mob going after Mike Pence, Nancy Pelosi, and others, injuring police officers in the process. The video seems to have made an impression on Republican Senators, most of whom, I’m sure, were already disgusted by what
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February 11, 2021 — John Hinderaker
That is actually a serious question, and Mark Steyn posed it to me on Fox Prime Time last night, along with some more general conversation about impeachment follies. Here is the segment, which I think you will find interesting:
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February 10, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
One of the good things about the impeachment of Donald Trump — maybe the only good thing — is that it has brought William Belknap into the spotlight. And that’s a good thing only for history buffs. Belknap is the only member of the executive branch until now to be impeached after leaving office. His impeachment trial is said to be precedent for holding one for Trump. Belknap was a
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February 9, 2021 — Scott Johnson
(Former) President Trump left office in due course, yet the Senate is set to take up his second impeachment trial this afternoon at 1:00 p.m. (Eastern). The first item on the trial schedule is debate over the constitutionality of trial of a former president. Byron York reviewed the issue of constitutionality in his Daily Memo yesterday. The correct answer is “no.” After the arguments, the Senate will vote on whether
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February 3, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
The Article of Impeachment rushed through the House of Representative by Democrats charges Donald Trump with “incitement of insurrection.” As I argued here, this charge is less than compelling. Indeed, the one statement cited in the article as inciting an insurrection — “if you don’t fight like hell you’re not going to have a country anymore” — falls woefully short of supporting the Dems’ claim. Politicians urge supporters to fight
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February 1, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
Over the weekend, the legal team that was to represent Donald Trump at the impeachment trial resigned. According to this report, the lawyers on that team did not want to argue that Trump won the election. Instead, they wanted to focus on arguing that impeaching a president who has already left office is unconstitutional. To me, such a focus would be bad lawyering. Good lawyering would be to argue in
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January 27, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
Most conservatives I know are disgusted that the Senate is going to try Donald Trump even now that he’s no longer president. At the same time, most think that holding the trial will either benefit Republicans or be a political wash. However, Andy McCarthy believes that it’s the Democrats who will come out as winners. He argues that the trial will “unite the Left while intensifying the Right’s internecine conflict.”
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January 26, 2021 — Scott Johnson
Chief Justice John Roberts will not preside over the Senate impeachment trial of President Trump: the text of the Constitution only requires the Chief Justice to preside over the trial of “the President.” The text of the Constitution only requires the Chief Justice to preside over a Senate impeachment trial of “the President.” Trump is no longer “the President.” Roberts’s presence is therefore not called for. Will private citizen Trump
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January 25, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
As expected, Chief Justice Roberts has declined to preside at the Senate trial of President Trump. Roberts is not required to preside because Trump is not the president. Clearly, he wants no part of the proceeding. You might think that, in Roberts’ absence, Kamala Harris would preside. After all, as vice president of the U.S., she is president of the Senate. However, the “honor” will go instead to Sen. Patrick
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January 25, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
This is the last in my series of posts called “On Impeachment.” Part One is here. Part Two, which set forth some presumptions about impeaching a president, is here. Part Three is here. It discussed the free speech problem with impeaching President Trump for stating his view about the election. Part Four considered the merits of impeaching Trump for what he urged protesters to do. In this post, I want
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