I would like to be able to say that this will be the Democrats’ last-ever chance to impeach Donald Trump, but I wouldn’t put anything past them. Who would have ever imagined them attempting to convict the former president after he left office? Yet here we are.
The circumstances are so peculiar that Chief Justice John Roberts has signaled that he won’t be presiding over the Senate trial. This is in keeping with protocol. When the person facing impeachment isn’t a sitting president of the United States, the trial is usually overseen by the president pro tempore of the Senate, not the SCOTUS chief justice. In this case that would be Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.).
Which brings up another peculiarity: According to the Constitution, impeachment trials are a remedy that Congress may avail itself of to remove a president found guilty of a high crime or misdemeanor from office. But Donald Trump has already left office.
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Ignore all this illogic, Democrats are eager to press forward. To that end, they are trying to persuade themselves that this final act of revenge against Trump will not further divide an already polarized electorate. Chuck Schumer tweeted this:
Sen. Chuck Schumer: "The only way to bring healing is to actually have real accountability." pic.twitter.com/9M2hPfCAC2
— The Hill (@thehill) January 25, 2021
Other Democrats, trying to make sense of the impeachment fiasco, have inadvertently provided arguments in favor of not proceeding with the trial. Here’s Rep. Eric Swalwell.
.@RepSwalwell: "I think that in the history of jury trials ever, there's never been a case where the jurors, the senators, were witnesses, where the jurors, the senators, were victims, where their chamber is the scene of the crime." pic.twitter.com/dvOB7cLzQO
— The Hill (@thehill) January 25, 2021
Here’s right. There hasn’t been a trial, at least in the U.S., where either the witnesses or the victims (the plaintiffs) were jurors — nor should there be. According to his bio, Swalwell has a degree in law. Was he sick from law school the day they explained that during jury selection, the court attempts to weed out prospective jurors who have a vested interest in the outcome or harbor prejudices against the accused?
(h/t Twitchy)
