Assassination, secession, insurrection: The crimes of John Wilkes Booth, Jefferson Davis, and Trump

Donald Trump broke new ground as the first president—the first American, period—to be impeached twice. However, thinking of him solely in those terms fails by a long shot to capture how truly historic his crimes were. Forget the number of impeachments—and certainly don’t be distracted by pathetic, partisan scoundrels voting to acquit—The Man Who Lost The Popular Vote (Twice) is the only president to incite a violent insurrection aimed at overthrowing our democracy—and get away with it.

But reading those words doesn’t fully and accurately describe the vile nature of what Trump wrought on Jan. 6. In this case, to paraphrase the woman who should’ve been the 45th president, it takes a video.

Senate Republicans acquitted Donald Trump of high crimes and misdemeanors twice. So make them pay: Donate $1 right now to each of the Democratic nominee funds targeting vulnerable Senate Republicans in 2022.

Although it’s difficult, I encourage anyone who hasn’t yet done so to watch the compilation of footage the House managers presented on the first day of the impeachment trial. It left me shaking with rage. Those thugs wanted not just to defile a building, but to defile our Constitution. They sought to overturn an election in which many hadn’t even bothered themselves to vote.

What was their purpose? In their own words, as they screamed while storming the Capitol: “Fight for Trump! Fight for Trump!” Those were the exact same words they had chanted shortly beforehand during the speech their leader gave at the Ellipse. He told them to fight for him, and they told him they would. And then they did.

“These defendants themselves told you exactly why they were here” pic.twitter.com/6HVsD8Kl0M

— The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) February 10, 2021

Many of those fighting for Trump were motivated by a white Christian nationalist ideology of hate—hatred of liberals, Jews, African Americans, and other people of color. Most of that Trumpist mob stands diametrically opposed to the ideals that really do make America great—particularly the simple notion laid down in the Declaration of Independence that, after nearly 250 years, we’ve still yet to fully realize: All of us are created equal. The Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol was but another battle in our country’s long-running race war.

As Rev. William Barber explained just a few days ago: “White supremacy, though it may be targeted at Black people, is ultimately against democracy itself.” He added: “This kind of mob violence, in reaction to Black, brown and white people coming together and voting to move the nation forward in progressive ways, has always been the backlash.”

Barber is right on all counts. White supremacy’s centuries-long opposition to true democracy in America is also the through-line that connects what Trump has done since Election Day and on Jan. 6 to his true historical forebears in our history. Not the other impeached presidents, whose crimes—some more serious than others—differed from those of Trump not merely by a matter of degree, but in their very nature. Even Richard Nixon, as dangerous to the rule of law as his actions were, didn’t encourage a violent coup. That’s how execrable Trump is; Tricky Dick comes out ahead by comparison.

Instead, Trump’s true forebears are the violent white supremacists who rejected our democracy to preserve their perverted racial hierarchy: the Southern Confederates. It’s no coincidence that on Jan. 6 we saw a good number of Confederate flags unfurled at the Capitol on behalf of the Insurrectionist-in-Chief. As many, including Penn State history professor emeritus William Blair, have noted: “The Confederate flag made it deeper into Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, than it did during the Civil War.“

As for that blood-soaked, intra-American conflict—after Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1860, 11 Southern states refused to accept the results because they feared it would lead to the end of slavery. They seceded from the Union and backed that action with violence. Led by their president, Jefferson Davis, they aimed to achieve through the shedding of blood what they could not at the ballot box: to protect their vision of a white-dominated society in which African Americans were nothing more than property.

Some, of course, will insist the Civil War began for other reasons, like “states’ rights,” choosing to skip right past the words uttered, just after President Lincoln’s inauguration, by Alexander Stephens, who would soon be elected vice president of the Confederacy. Stephens described the government created by secessionists thusly: “Its foundations are laid, its corner-stone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery—subordination to the superior race—is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth.”

In the speech he gave at his 1861 inauguration, Lincoln accurately diagnosed secession as standing in direct opposition to democracy.

Plainly the central idea of secession is the essence of anarchy. A majority held in restraint by constitutional checks and limitations, and always changing easily with deliberate changes of popular opinions and sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free people. Whoever rejects it does of necessity fly to anarchy or to despotism. Unanimity is impossible. The rule of a minority, as a permanent arrangement, is wholly inadmissible; so that, rejecting the majority principle, anarchy or despotism in some form is all that is left.

Davis, Stephens, and the rest of the Confederates spent four long years in rebellion against democracy and racial equality. In 1865, Lincoln was sworn in for a second term. On the ballot the previous year had been his vision, laid out at Gettysburg, of a war fought so that our country might become what it had long claimed to be, namely a nation built on the promise of liberty and equality for every American. Lincoln’s vision won the election. He planned to lead the Union to final victory and, hopefully, bring that vision to life. Instead, John Wilkes Booth shot the 16th president to death.

Why did Booth commit that violent act, one that sought to remove a democratically elected president? Look at his own written words: “This country was formed for the white, not for the black man. And looking upon African Slavery from the same stand-point held by the noble framers of our constitution. I for one, have ever considered (it) one of the greatest blessings (both for themselves and us,) that God has ever bestowed upon a favored nation.”

As author and Washington College historian Adam Goodheart explains, Booth was “motivated by politics and he was especially motivated by racism, by Lincoln’s actions to emancipate the slaves and, more immediately, by some of Lincoln’s statements that he took as meaning African Americans would get full citizenship.” When Booth opened fire, his gun was aimed at not just one man, but at the notion of a multiracial, egalitarian democracy itself.

Trump may not have pulled a trigger, bashed a window, or attacked any police officers while wearing a flag cape, but he shares the same ideology, motive, and mindset as his anti-democratic, white supremacist forebears. They didn’t like the result of an election, and were ready and willing to use violence to undo it. Secession, assassination, insurrection. These are three sides of a single triangle.

I hope, for the sake of our country and the world, we never have another president like Donald Trump. I hope we as a people—or at least enough of us—have learned that we cannot elect an unprincipled demagogue as our leader.

A person without principle will never respect, let alone cherish, the Constitution or the democratic process. A person without principle can only see those things as a means to gain or maintain a hold on power. A person without principle believes the end always justifies the means.

That’s who Trump is: a person without principle. That’s why he lied for two months after Election Day, why he called for his MAGA minions to come to Washington on the day Joe Biden’s victory was to be formally certified in Congress, and why he incited an insurrection on that day to prevent that certification from taking place. His forces sought nothing less than the destruction of American democracy.

For those crimes, Trump was impeached, yes. But those crimes are far worse than those committed by any other president. Regardless of the verdict, those crimes will appear in the first sentence of his obituary. They are what he will be remembered for, despite the cowardice of his GOP enablers. Forever.

Ian Reifowitz is the author of  The Tribalization of Politics: How Rush Limbaugh's Race-Baiting Rhetoric on the Obama Presidency Paved the Way for Trump (Foreword by Markos Moulitsas)

MSNBC’s Joy Reid Says Cruz And Hawley’s Families Should Be ‘Ashamed’ Of Them

MSNBC host Joy Reid went after Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Josh Hawley (R-MI) on Wednesday, going so far as to say that their families should be “ashamed” of the role she claims they plaid in the Capitol riots.

Reid Attacks Cruz And Hawley

“If I were the families of Josh Hawley who unfortunately replaced Claire McCaskill in the United States Senate and Ted Cruz, I’d be ashamed because they were a part of it,” she said, referring to the Capitol riots.

“Josh Hawley was giving the high fist to those murderers, those cop killers. Ted Cruz, they’re in the gallery saying, oh, Ted Cruz is with us,” Reid added. 

“They’re accessories to the murders, to the mayhem, to the hunting of the vice president of the United States, and by the way, where is the vice president of the United States? You’ve been asking that, Nicolle,” she said to her colleague Nicole Wallace.

“He was literally hunted like an animal. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen anything like this in terms of Senate testimony ever,” she said.

Related: MSNBC’s Joy Reid Claims Capitol Police Went Easy On ‘White’ Protesters, Ignores Woman Killed

“I don’t know how any of them can sleep at night and face their families and their children and explain after what has basically been a truth, not the reconciliation part, but a truth commission,” Reid continued.

“You know, I doubt that Donald Trump will be convicted. They’ll find a way to tuck their shame away and pretend that this is okay, but we now know,” Reid concluded. “We know. We have seen it viscerally. We have heard the police calling on the radio calling for help.”

Cruz And Hawley Condemn Capitol Riots

It should be noted that both Cruz and Hawley have repeatedly condemned the Capitol riots over the past few weeks.

“We saw a terrorist attack on the United States Capitol,” Cruz said on January 7. “Everyone who attacked the Capitol should be fully prosecuted and they should spend a long, long time in jail.”

“You’re not going to get anything but condemnation from me for what happened with those criminals at the Capitol on Jan. 6, but that doesn’t make the trial any more legitimate than it is, which is totally illegitimate — no basis in the Constitution,” Hawley said on Thursday, according to Politico.

Related: Josh Hawley Rips Democrats – ‘Total Lie’ That I Tried To Overturn Presidential Election

“What we’re seeing is what we lived through. It’s what my staff lived through,” Hawley added. “The criminals who did it ought to be prosecuted as they are being and ought to be given the full measure of the law.”

This piece was written by James Samson on February 11, 2021. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

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Cory Booker Claims No More Evidence Is Needed To Conclude ‘Trump Violated His Oath Of Office’

Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) went on CNN on Thursday morning to claim that “we do not need more evidence to come to the conclusion that Trump violated his oath of office.”

Booker Says No More Evidence Is Needed To Impeach

In making this claim, Booker cited Trump’s “prolific tweeting,” and his silence as his followers tried to find then-Vice President Mike Pence and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi during the Capitol riots last month.

“They literally were saying they were taking direction from him. They were reading his tweet publicly out to other rioters as they chanted, ‘Hang Mike Pence,” Booker said. 

“I do not understand how you cannot look [at] this prolific tweeting that went on and then the silence afterward. This is a president that knows how to tell people to stop,” he added. 

Related: Lindsey Graham Predicts ‘Not Guilty’ Impeachment Votes Are Growing After ‘Absurd’ Arguments From Democrats

Booker Doubles Down

“I don’t know how you can’t look at the fact that it was well known that the riotous, murderous mob was in the Capitol for an hour plus, and then the two things you hear from the president is one, him replaying his own speech on Twitter and then telling the mob that Mike Pence had failed them,” Booker continued. 

“It is hard to even venture to say that the commander-in-chief who swore an oath to protect this sacred space did not fail in his duty, did not betray that oath,” Booker concluded. “We do not need more evidence, in my opinion, to come to the conclusion that … Donald Trump violated his oath of office.”

Related: Lindsey Graham Rips Impeachment – ‘We’re Doing A Lot Of Damage To The Country Because People Hate Trump’

Trump Impeachment

This comes as Trump’s impeachment trial is ongoing in the Senate, with the former president being accused of inciting the Capitol riots last month.

He was already impeached by the House over this for a second time last month, but it remains to be seen whether Democrats will be successful in impeaching him in the Senate.

Earlier this month, Booker released a statement calling for the Senate to impeach Trump, saying that “it brings me no satisfaction to come to this conclusion. And yet we all swore an oath to  ‘support and defend the Constitution of the United States.’”

This piece was written by James Samson on February 11, 2021. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

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Constitutional Professor: Why Senate Cannot Bar Trump From Being President Again

By James Sieja for RealClearPolitics

Perhaps they are thinking about the next election or their political legacies, but Democrats and some Republicans intent on impeaching and convicting former President Donald Trump are not reading the Constitution correctly. 

When the Senate trial begins Monday, there will be lots of grandstanding and lawyerly pettifogging, and we will find out if Democrats can convince 17 Republicans that they need to convict the former president. 

Fortunately, I don’t think they’ll succeed. I say fortunately because impeaching Trump would be wrong, constitutionally speaking. 

RELATED: Trump Lawyer’s Demand Senate Impeachment Trial Be Dismissed, Top Dem Admits ‘Not Crazy To Argue’ It’s Unconstitutional

Forty-five Republicans recently voted that this second Trump impeachment trial is in itself unconstitutional. They are incorrect. 

The bipartisan group of 55 senators who voted to proceed to the trial think that the Senate can apply a sanction after conviction. Constitutionally, they’re wrong, too. 

Republicans are wrong because the plain text of the Constitution, as Michael McConnell, a Stanford professor and former federal judge, points out, makes no exceptions or qualifications to either the House’s “sole power of impeachment” or the Senate’s “sole power to try all impeachments.” 

Therefore, the Senate clearly has the power — what legal scholars call jurisdiction — to try the case. 

But, jurisdiction is not the only consideration enshrined in constitutional law.

Two other concepts, standing and justiciability, are central to any court’s decision-making at the beginning of a case. Along with jurisdiction, courts call them, collectively, “threshold questions.” 

Because senators, especially the ones looking to convict, exercise judicial power when they try any impeachment, they would do well to take seriously the requirements for standing and the Supreme Court’s rules for justiciability. 

Standing refers to someone’s ability to bring a case to court in the first place. In the 1992 case Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife, the late Justice Antonin Scalia listed three factors that comprise the “irreducible constitutional minimum” basis for standing.

While people probably know Justice Scalia for his acerbic dissents, the Lujan majority today is likely his most widely cited uncontroversial opinion. 

In the second Trump impeachment, the relevant element of the Lujan trio is the last one: The court must be able to give a final, binding judgment to the party that wants a punishment.

RELATED: Rand Paul Roasts Hypocrisy Of Impeaching Trump, Doing Nothing About Chuck Schumer, Waters, And Omar

The House wants to punish Trump for his actions. Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution plainly declares the required punishment: “The president … shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of … high crimes and misdemeanors.”

“Shall” means it must happen. The Senate can’t remove Trump from a position he no longer holds, which means it can’t punish him. Thus, the House lacks standing. 

To be clear, the House retained standing while Trump retained the presidency. But, once he left, the case became moot — purely a matter for discussion, like the number of angels that can dance on the head of a pin.

“Wait!” supporters of conviction cry out. “There’s also the bit in Article I about disqualifying a person who’s been impeached from holding office ever again.”

That is true, but the passage doesn’t improve the logic of a post-presidency Senate punishment in the least. No matter how long we “Wait!” the Senate will still not be able to render the required punishment, so the standing problem remains. 

More importantly, the disqualification punishment presents a justiciability question. Justiciability refers to the ability of a court to effectively resolve the case.

Over several cases, the Supreme Court has identified a bunch of factors that lead to justiciability issues, but all of them stem from a single idea: It’s not the court’s job to decide this, but rather it’s somebody else’s job. 

If the Senate tried to disqualify Trump from holding the presidency again, it would arrogate a privilege — determining who will not be president — that the Constitution explicitly reserves to another body: We the People.

Thus, there is a clear justiciability problem with disqualification if it tries to block anyone — Trump, you, me, anyone — from winning the presidency or other elected office. 

RELATED: Hiding Biden: How Democrats Crafted First Impeachment, Helping Defeat Trump With Media Help

Alexander Hamilton declared that the Constitution stood for the idea “that the people should choose whom they please to govern them.”

However imperfectly, this is what we do in districts and states throughout the country. And we choose through the Electoral College, a defense of which the current impeachment ironically springs from.

For the House and Senate, a mere 535 citizens, to absolutely bar nearly 160 million from a completely free electoral choice turns the Constitution upside down. 

Ultimately, the Senate can exercise its clear jurisdiction to hear the case, complete with senatorial bloviations, and lawyerly dodges.

But, if the outcome is anything other than the status quo ante, meaning Trump remains eligible for the presidency in the future, the Senate will deal a grave blow to not just the Constitution but to every member of We the People who thinks they still have a choice.

Syndicated with permission from RealClearWire.

James Sieja, assistant professor of government at St. Lawrence University, studies the federal court system and teaches courses in the U.S. Constitution.

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Newt Gingrich Predicts Democrats Will Throw Away Congress ‘Once Again’ With ‘Radical’ Budget Agenda

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich spoke out on Friday to predict that Democrats will throw away their control of Congress with a “radical” budget agenda.

He said this on Fox News after they passed the $1.9 trillion coronavirus stimulus package.

Gingrich Comments On Democrats

Gingrich said that Democrats “have clearly decided” that they will “go for broke on a radical agenda,” adding that this “almost certainly guarantees” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) will take over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) role.

“[L]et me start and point out this is the third time they’ve done this,” Gingrich said. “Bill Clinton passed a huge tax increase with no Republicans, and in 1994, they lost 54 seats in the House. Pelosi and others rammed through bills with no Republicans, and in 2010, they lost 63 seats in the House.”

“What the Democrats have now clearly decided is that they are going to go for broke on a radical agenda,” he added.

“They’re going to do everything they can without any Republicans, and that means that they are going to own everything in the election of 2022, and [that] almost certainly guarantees that Kevin McCarthy is the next Speaker and that the Democrats will, in fact once again for the third time have thrown away control of the Congress,” Gingrich said.

Related: Gingrich: Pelosi Impeachment Push Is Because She’s Scared Trump Might Run Again – And Win

Gingrich Says Pelosi Is ‘Hysterical’

Later in this interview, Gingrich said that Pelosi is “hysterical” because she is losing a grip on her speakership.

“That five-vote margin is going to break down sometime this spring as members start to say, ‘Hey, I can’t go back home if I keep voting like a radical.’ And at that point, McCarthy will be the functional leader of the House,” he claimed.

This comes weeks after Gingrich blasted Pelosi as the “most destructive Speaker in history.”

“First off, she keeps violating the Constitution,” Gingrich said of Pelosi. “The latest impeachment is just a simple example.”

“She uses her power ruthlessly and she has really pushed through the most radical positions ever taken by an American Speaker, including abolishing mother and father and uncle and aunt and son and daughter as words, literally trying to strip out any gender reference from the House of Representatives,” he added. “I think she’s very dangerous.”

Read Next: Newt Gingrich Eviscerates Pelosi – ‘Most Destructive Speaker In History’

This piece was written by James Samson on February 6, 2021. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

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Top Dem Accuses Trump Of ‘Actively Courting A Rise Of The Confederacy’ And ‘Civil War In Our Country’

Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) spoke out on Friday to outrageously accuse former President Donald Trump of “actively courting a rising of the Confederacy” and “a civil war.”

Jayapal Attacks Trump

“We all feel this tension of our colleagues who are continuing to not admit that Joe Biden won the election or continuing to engage with white nationalist extremist groups that were part of the insurrection on the Capitol, are continuing to tie themselves to Donald Trump, the president, who incited the insurrection,” Jayapal said while appearing on MSNBC.

“The most violent on the Capitol since the War of 1812,” she added. “The reality is there are too many members of the Republican Party who are refusing to wear masks, are refusing to go through metal detectors.”

Related: Adam Schiff Rips GOP Leaders As ‘Dangerous Cult’ Over Threats Made To Democrats

Jayapal Calls Republican Party A ‘Cult’

Not stopping there, Jayapal went on to accuse the Republican Party of being a “cult.”

“So it is real, the security threat to us, individually, in our homes, in our districts, and on the floor are real,” she said. “So is the rage at Republicans who are choosing a cult party and a cult figure over the Constitution. That’s what it is.”

“I have a lot of respect for Liz Cheney, for Adam Kinzinger, for Republicans, who understand their number one duty is to make sure we preserve our democracy and Constitution,” Jayapal continued.

“If Republicans choose to go along with Donald Trump, they’re choosing to go along with a president who incited insurrection and who is actively courting a rising of the Confederacy and, frankly, a civil war in our country,” she added. “So it is a very difficult time in our country.”

Related: Ilhan Omar Says If Republicans Won’t Remove ‘Dangerous And Violent’ Marjorie Taylor Greene, Then ‘We Must Do It’

“We are not going to succumb to this moment of, you know, really, terribly troubling times for our country,” Jayapal concluded. “Katy, the road to fascism is littered with moments where people either did not speak up, or they went along with what was being proposed. I do fear for our country in this moment.”

This comes after Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) made similar comments about the Republican Party.

“You know, the GOP leadership is becoming little more than a cult and a dangerous cult,” Schiff continued.

This piece was written by James Samson on January 30, 2021. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

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The post Top Dem Accuses Trump Of ‘Actively Courting A Rise Of The Confederacy’ And ‘Civil War In Our Country’ appeared first on The Political Insider.

Most Americans Say Trump Impeachment Will Only Divide Us More

Democrats are on a mission right now to impeach former President Donald Trump in the Senate, but a new poll might make them think twice about this, as it’s showing that this may not be what the majority of Americans want.

Americans Think Trump Impeachment Will Divide Us

A new Rasmussen Reports poll found that 57% of likely voters said that another Trump impeachment will only divide Americans more.

It also found that only 19% believe the impeachment trial will unify Americans, and 20% said it wouldn’t have any impact on unity one way or the other.

On top of that, the poll concluded that 50% of likely voters believe that the Senate should not convict the Trump of “high crimes and misdemeanors,” and 45% said he should be convicted at all.

The House voted to impeach Trump for a second time earlier this month for “incitement of insurrection” regarding the Capitol riots.

Related: Donald Trump Meets With Kevin McCarthy At Mar-A-Lago To Plan 2022 Republican House Takeover 

Rand Paul Blasts Impeachment

This comes after Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) spoke out to say that the upcoming Senate impeachment trial of Trump is already “dead on arrival.”

“We had 45 people, 45 Republican senators say that the whole charade is unconstitutional,” Paul told Fox News earlier this week. “So, what does that mean? It means … the trial is dead on arrival.”

“There will be a show,” he added. “There will be a parade of partisanship, but the Democrats really will not be able to win. They will be able to play a partisan game that they wish to play. But it’s all over.”

Harvard Law School professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz said on BlazeTV’s “Glenn Beck Program” that the Trump impeachment is “unconstitutional.”

“The Constitution says the purpose of impeachment is to remove somebody,” Dershowitz said.”He [Trump] is out of office. There’s nothing left to do. It doesn’t say you can impeach him to disqualify him for the future. It says, if you remove him you can then add disqualification, but you can’t just impeach somebody to disqualify them.”

It should be noted that no president has ever been impeached after they have left office.

Read Next: Dead On Arrival: 45 Republicans – Including McConnell – Vote That Trump’s Impeachment Trial Is Unconstitutional

This piece was written by James Samson on January 29, 2021. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

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Schumer Unloads On Republicans Refusing To Support Impeachment – Vows To Hold Trial

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (R-NY) came unglued on the Senate floor on Wednesday as he let loose on the 45 Republican senators who voted that an impeachment trial against former President Donald Trump in the Senate would be unconstitutional.

On Tuesday night, the Senate voted to dismiss a motion put forth by Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) that having an impeachment trial for a president who is no longer in office violates the constitution.

However, only five Republicans joined Democrats in voting to table the motion, making it incredibly unlikely that Schumer will be successful in impeaching Trump.

Schumer Attacks Republicans 

Schumer took to the Senate floor the next day to call the 45 Republicans who voted in favor of tabling an impeachment trial “deeply irresponsible.”

“Only five Republican senators were willing to take a principled stand against this reckless and ill-advised effort by members of this body who are eager to excuse President Trump’s campaign to overturn the election and apparently to excuse his incitement of the mob that every one of us experienced in this Capitol,” Schumer said, according to CBS News.

“I would simply say to all of my colleagues, make no mistake, there will be a trial, and the evidence against the former president will be presented in living color for the nation and every one of us to see once again,” he added.

Related: Schumer Promises Quick Impeachment Trial, A Lot Of Witnesses Not Necessary

The House already impeached Trump for a second time for allegedly inciting the Capitol riots earlier this month, and if the Senate does indeed impeach him, he won’t be able to run for office again.

“No one will be able to avert their gaze from what Mr. Trump said and did and the consequences of his actions,” Schumer said. “We will all watch what happened. We will listen to what happened. And then we will vote. We will pass judgment as our solemn duty under the Constitution demands.”

Other Democrats Have Second Thoughts

Others Democrats, however, are starting to realize that an impeachment trial may not be the best idea. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) has teamed up with Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) to pitch censure resolution against Trump to their colleagues.

“The vote on the Paul motion yesterday was completely clarifying that we’re not going to get near 67 [votes],” said Kaine, who was Hillary Clinton’s running mate in her failed presidential run against Trump in 2016.

“To do a trial knowing you’ll get 55 votes at the max seems to me to be not the right prioritization of our time,” he added. “Obviously we do a trial, maybe we can do it fast, but my top priority is COVID relief and getting the Biden cabinet approved.”

Related: GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene Makes Good On Promise To File Impeachment Against Biden

Collins pledged to vote in favor of censuring Trump “in lieu of” an impeachment trial.

“Senator Kaine and I have been working on a proposal for censure. It is still in process but I think yesterday’s vote on the Senate floor shows that it is extremely unlikely that President Trump would be convicted, and that indeed the five votes to even proceed to a trial is probably the high mark on what you’re going to see for Republican support,” Collins said.

“If the outcome of the trial is already obvious — which I believe yesterday’s vote shows clearly…then the question is, is there another way to express condemnation of the president’s activities with regard to the riot and the pressure that he put on state officials?” she added.

This piece was written by James Samson on January 28, 2021. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

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Dead On Arrival: 45 Republicans – Including McConnell – Vote That Trump’s Impeachment Trial Is Unconstitutional

A majority of Republicans – including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell – voted Wednesday that the impeachment trial of Donald Trump is unconstitutional.

Senator Rand Paul forced a vote on the matter.

In an op-ed written over the weekend, Paul (R-KY) called the impeachment process against the former President a “farce” and said it should be dismissed.

“The Constitution says two things about impeachment — it is a tool to remove the officeholder, and it must be presided over by the chief justice of the Supreme Court,” he wrote.

Neither of those elements exists in this case, as President Trump is no longer in office and Chief Justice John Roberts has declined to preside over the trial.

RELATED: Poll: Republican Voters Are Siding With Trump Over Mitch McConnell

Paul Declares Unconstitutional Impeachment Vote Is Dead

Paul called for a procedural vote regarding holding a trial, claiming the Senate shouldn’t address the article of impeachment against Trump because he is out of office.

In a speech prior to the vote – a speech that went viral – the Kentucky Republican blasted Democrats as “hyper-partisan” and suggested  they “are about to drag our great country into the gutter of rancor and vitriol the likes of which has never been seen in our nation’s history.”

The Senate voted 55-45 to end debate on Paul’s point of order, but the point, in reality, was made. Only five Republicans joined the Democrats, well below the 17 that would be needed for a vote of conviction.

“If you voted that it was unconstitutional, how in the world would you ever vote to convict somebody for this?” Paul told reporters. “This vote indicates it’s over. The trial is all over.”

He later tweeted that the impeachment trial was “dead on arrival.”

RELATED: Schumer Promises Quick Impeachment Trial, A Lot Of Witnesses Not Necessary

Who Joined the Democrats?

Of the five Republicans who voted with Democrats, you had your usual suspects. Typical RINOs who often hide their contempt for President Trump in the cloak of the Constitution, but clearly don’t understand its words.

Susan Collins (ME), Lisa Murkowski (AK), Ben Sasse (NE), Pat Toomey (PA), and Mitt Romney (UT) all voted to table Paul’s point of order.

Article I, Section 3 of the Constitution reads in part:

The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments. When sitting for that Purpose, they shall be on Oath or Affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: And no Person shall be convicted without the Concurrence of two thirds of the Members present.

Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States: but the Party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law.

McConnell, surprisingly, voted against ending the debate.

McConnell has reportedly viewed the Democrats’ effort to impeach the president as a means to “help rid the Republican Party of Trump and his movement.”

A recent poll from Axios-Ipsos shows Republican voters have been siding with President Trump over McConnell on the matter.

A majority have said they do not hold Trump responsible for the Capitol riots, believe he has a right to challenge the election, and still prefer him as their nominee in 2024.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer indicated earlier this week that President Trump’s impeachment trial would be “quick,” adding no decision has been made on the need for witnesses.

Evidence is beginning to point to this unconstitutional impeachment trial as a sham – perhaps even more so than the first one.

The post Dead On Arrival: 45 Republicans – Including McConnell – Vote That Trump’s Impeachment Trial Is Unconstitutional appeared first on The Political Insider.