Harold Meyerson of The American Prospect writes here about Donald Trump’s historic achievement as the only president in American history to be impeached twice.
![]() Impeachment: Second Time Around One of the weirder sentiments expressed by Donald Trump’s Republican defenders during today’s debate on the impeachment resolution was that the Democrats had the chutzpah to impeach Trump twice. It wasn’t enough to have impeached him for conditioning aid to a foreign country on that country’s willingness to defame Joe Biden (then his likely Democratic opponent), but now, the Democrats were coming for him twice! Imagine that! It’s an interesting argument, which, if followed to its logical conclusion, would mean that no career criminal could ever be charged for any but his or her first offense. But this was hardly the most ridiculous argument that Trump’s distinguished lady and gentlemen goons made on the floor of Congress today. The most nauseating, and commonly voiced, was that the nation needed unity and that Democrats were thus unsettling the cosmic calm. That was largely the substance of Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy’s presentation. This was the same Kevin McCarthy who voted to overturn the popular and electoral votes of Arizona and Pennsylvania last week; the same Kevin McCarthy who himself had insisted that Trump had won the election when he plainly and decisively had lost it; the same Kevin McCarthy who thereby helped create the political space for his Republican colleagues to persist in spouting such falsehoods to the point that they also incited the mob that attacked the Capitol last week. Trump, of course, was not alone in his incitement; he was joined by hundreds of Republican elected officials at all levels of government, and a critical mass of Rupert Murdoch’s broadcasting thugs and their voluble, seditious ilk. Republicans also objected to the speed of the proceedings, to the absence of witnesses called before committees, as if the telecast of Trump’s speech last Wednesday to his followers charging them to go to the Capitol didn’t exist. But Republicans may be thankful that no witnesses were called, for if they had been, McCarthy would have been called by the prosecution. It’s been reported that he and Trump engaged in a screaming phone call as the mob coursed through the Capitol; McCarthy begging Trump to tell them to stop; Trump refusing to do so. It would have been interesting to hear McCarthy’s testimony about that call. One of the House Republicans who voted for impeachment today cited Trump’s refusal to call off his mob as the decisive factor in his vote. If anything, Trump’s declining to tell his supporters to stop attacking Congress is even more of a prima facie violation of his oath than his incitement to attack in the first place. The one aspect of the past 24 hours’ events that lends itself to delicious speculation is the conduct of Mitch McConnell, who has been hinting that he might well vote to convict Trump when the Senate takes up impeachment. It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that McConnell holds Trump responsible for the Republican defeats in Georgia’s senatorial elections and thus for the Republicans’ loss of the Senate majority and his own demotion to minority leader. It’s also reasonable to suspect that McConnell believes Trump will continue to drag the Republicans down in 2022, 2024, and who knows how long after that if he continues to loom over the party, much less if he’s its presidential nominee in 2024. Should Trump be convicted by the Senate, of course, he can’t be that nominee—a consummation, McConnell must hope, devoutly to be wished. Republicans, as my colleague Bob Kuttner has written, will doubtless reunite in opposition to anything President Biden proposes, but the rip that has now opened in the party won’t be easy to mend, particularly if Trumpites mount primary challenges to Republicans who’ve jumped off the Trump ship, and if the Republicans who stuck with Trump lose re-election in competitive states and districts. Which would be wonderful; this is a party that deserves to tear itself to pieces. ~ HAROLD MEYERSON . |
the Senate will vote after Biden is inaugurated? Is that a good thing or not as good as it should be?
Impeachment after inauguration might interfere with the Biden’s first hundred days in office.
Some judges and scholars say that the Senate can’t impeach after Trump leaves office
senator William Blount and Secretary of War William Belknap were impeached after leaving office.
Trump needs to be tried and convicted in the Senate. Otherwise, for the rest of his life, this man (using the term loosely) who incited insurrection against the United States government will be receiving a big paycheck from the taxpayers and money to pay staff and expenses of a personal office that he can use for further incitement.
That’s not acceptable.
Ofc, he faces an avalanche of criminal prosecutions–sexual assault, money laundering, misappropriation of campaign contributions, bank and insurance fraud, violation of the emoluments clauses of the Constitution, and so on–and could easily end up in prison. If there were any justice in the world, Trump and Miller and Sessions and their co-conspirators who be extradited to face charges from the International Court of Criminal Justice for Crimes against Humanity for the mass kidnapping of the children of legal asylum seekers.
So, prison. That would work, too.
Is this how we repay traitorousness, with LITERAL pay?
I bet Trump will not live much longer.
He’s undoubtedly stressed to the max and a prime candidate for a heart attack.
I’d give him 5 years.
Well, when the day finally comes (I wish him a long life in prison), they can put on his tombstone
Here lies Donald Trump. But that’s nothing new.
Former presidents who have not been impeached and convicted receive:
$221,400 in annual salary
Up to 1 million dollars per year in travel expenses for the former president and up to two staff members, plus $500,000 for security and travel for his or her spouse
Funding from the General Services Administration to set up, furnish, staff, and pay the expenses of an official office anywhere in the United States. Each staff member can receive from taxpayers salary of $150,000 for the first 30 months and $96,000 per year thereafter, and there are no limits on the size or location of the office space, making the allowance for that open-ended. The former president also receives $500,000 per year for work-related expenses, decreasing over 10 years to $250,000 annually.
Cost of a funeral ceremony with full honors and the option to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery
Classified costs of lifetime Secret Service protection are not released.
The last of these would not end with impeachment and conviction, but the others would.
So, if it is in fact the case that Satan has turned down Stephen “Goebbels” Miller for a job post-White House, he can always try for a job in the Trump office, where he can be paid to write the Trump “Mein Kampf.” You know, that other book written by a wannabe fascist dictator after a failed coup.
Should taxpayers be paying for further sedition from Trump? I don’t think so. When Trump said, “Be careful what you wish for,” he was making yet another threat in response to people wishing for his impeachment and conviction, not expressing contrition for having wished angry mobs of brownshirts on the nation’s Capitol.
If Trump is not convicted, he will get all of that money
YUP. Horrific.
You just made my day, Bob Shepherd
My suggestion for an amendment: Those impeached twice will pay back all the expenses they incurred during their presidency. Plus interest, of course. If deceased before paying all back, their children are tasked with the responsibility of paying back the balance.
Equally nauseating were the references to the leftist rioters of the summer- never mind that 93% of the protests during the summer were peaceful, and in quite a number of the remaining protests the police were not at their best behavior. Never mind that a great number of marginalized citizens speak with one voice- no matter how much they speak out, the country is just not interested in what they have to say. Never mind the still on going attempts to discount their votes as invalid. Even with this attempt to hold Trump accountable, we have a long way to go.
To me the outrageousness of that argument lies in ignoring the sedition—the treason—of an attack on the legislature in an attempt to stop the government from carrying out the peaceful transition of power to the duly elected successor to the presidency. Everything in that argument is baseless whataboutism.
I was waiting for the pep rally in the Rose Garden with the House traitors who voted against impeachment. It was the first time I longed to see the Idiot. Remember when they couldn’t get there fast enough to whoop it up after the House voted to repeal the ACA?
Politico said that Trump is backing away from running in 2024 because he’ll have to disclose financial info that would open him up to lawsuits. Does anyone know if this is true? What would he have to disclose?
Trump is facing multiple investigations…starting Jan 21
What a winner! He’s the best!
Nobody has impeachments like Donald Trump!
He can add this to his litany at his speeches.
“My emoluments are HUGE and so are my impeachments, indictments and imprisonments” — Donald Trump
LOL
“Two two two -ments in one [term]”
Here’s hoping that imprisonment by state AGs is soon added to that.
I think the liars on Fox should also be investigated.
And the view from all of my conservative bretheren: TRump is the victim here. He has given us so much during his four years of service to America. He has protected our borders, he has supported Israel and brought Iran to heel, he has turned America into an energy powerhouse, he has protected us from border invaders, he has rescued unborn babies. And he really won the election.
It is as if much of the country is acting on a different stage, a plane of different reality. This different reality also absolves Trump of any activity. When Nixon had to resign, his supporters all said that he had been victimized by the same activity that all politicians do. Now, almost a half century later, Trump is vindicated among his followers by the assertion that his opponent, Joe Biden, is the criminal, not Trump. Separate reality. All actions are vindicated with attacks on the opponents. They are socialists, they are pedophiles, they are human trafficers. these outrageous lies seem to have no basis, or any end.
Dominion is suing Powell, as I am sure most of the readers here have heard. Perhaps this is the best way to silence false information: Sue the perps in court.
“silencing” fundraising
Media report that PayPal blocked the primary Christian crowdsourcing site because it was being used to raise money for the defense of Proud Boys members and pro-trump rioters.
Roy, does evidence —or lack of it—matter?
Not to a cultist
https://bobshepherdonline.wordpress.com/2020/11/16/a-dummies-style-guide-to-becoming-a-cult-leader/
Note that this pretty much describes the Trump modus operandi
Trump makes up for what he lacks in terms in impeachments.
I think I’ve seen that movie, Terms of Impeachment.
LOL!
Think of the CGI it would take to recreate Trump in all his foulness.
Trump actually thought that the police and the military would join him in his coup coup coup. This always happens. The autocrat (or in Trump’s case, wannabe autorcrat, surrounds himself with toadies, sycophants, who praise his every passing of wind until he becomes so puffed up that he believes his own bs. Utter delusion.
“Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.” (Proverbs 16:18)
This really should be what Trump’s insurrection should be called in the history books: The Coup Coup Coup of 2020-21.
“Who would have thought that _______ would be so hard.” –Donald J. Trump. What Trump put in that space was “healthcare,” but for him, you could put ANYTHING there. Is this the most incompetent “leader” in history?
Many of the worst offenders in the Capitol Insurrection–Cruz, Hawley, Brooks–will put on their ballet slippers and bourrée en couru away.
As Diane pointed out in a comment to another post recently, this moment in history is a crossroads for the Republican Party. Does it really want Donnie Trump playing kingmaker going forward? Are they really want to ante up on the racism hand they’ve been holding for the last four years?
And look at where younger voters and POC are–not on their side.
They can either remake themselves or go the way of the Know-Nothings.
And so history presents the Republican Party with an intelligence test.
Yikes. Allow me to say that properly:
History Presents the Republican Party with an Intelligence Test
As Diane pointed out in a comment on another post, this moment in history is a crossroads for the Republican Party. Does it really want Donnie Trump playing kingmaker going forward? claiming the ticket in 2024 for himself or for one of his spawn? Do Republicans really want to ante up on the racism hand they’ve been holding for the past four years? How’s that likely to work out for them?
And look at where the future voters are: younger voters and POC are not on their side.
The Republican Party can either remake itself or go the way of the Know-Nothings.
“The most nauseating, and commonly voiced, was that the nation needed unity”
What the nation needs is thorough brain rinsing and draining of the Trump-filth and the anger. Then we can negotiate the terms of unity.
Amen