Tag: Impeachment

Blog, Other2 Comments

Why a Trial for Trump?

Jeffrey K. Tulis

There will be a Senate trial of Donald Trump after he is no longer in office. Because the impeachment process is designed as a mode of high politics to remove a president who abuses his office and the public trust, and if convicted, he would still be subject to criminal prosecution if warranted, many citizens will wonder: why have a Senate trial to remove him from an office he no longer holds? There are several reasons. The trial will be the opening exercise in a national Reckoning designed to diagnose the damage that Trump and Trump enablers did to the … Continue reading Why a Trial for Trump?

Blog, Other2 Comments

Crimes and High Crimes

Greg Weiner

The wind appears to have shifted somewhere between Air Force One and the Capitol building on Sunday, which was when Lindsey Graham, the malleable Senator from South Carolina, attempted to reclaim his status as the voice of reason. He is even harder to stomach in this reprisal of his original role as Senate moralist than he was in the first instantiation, probably because his dalliance–make that “torrid affair”–with Trumpism intervened. Graham wrote to Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer to plead that the article of impeachment be dismissed without being tried. His reasoning is admirable only for its audacity. Vice President … Continue reading Crimes and High Crimes

Blog, OtherLeave a comment

What’s the Holdup?

Greg Weiner

After the President’s unrepentant comments this morning and the Republican Party’s rapid return to baseline–witness Lindsey “Count Me Out” Graham accompanying Trump on his border visit–the correct course seems clear: Impeach this afternoon and send the article or articles to the Senate this afternoon. The purpose of the 25th Amendment gambit in the interim remains unclear, and it suggests Congress would prefer to outsource its responsibilities to the vice president. Any delay in sending the article(s) to the Senate would suggest political maneuvering. More important, it would suggest subservience of House Democrats to President-Elect Biden’s wishes. An immediate impeachment and … Continue reading What’s the Holdup?

BlogLeave a comment

Impeachment Beats the Alternatives

Greg Weiner

Congress seems split, mostly but not entirely on partisan lines, between two alternatives: removing Donald Trump immediately or getting the nation across the January 20 finish line on a wing and a prayer. The problem is that the wing and prayer are also predicated on bad precedents. The most ominous of these was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s call to General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, about, in her words, “preventing an unhinged president from using the nuclear codes.” That kind of interference from Congress in the military chain of command is a dicey precedent. These are, … Continue reading Impeachment Beats the Alternatives