In the official draft, House of Representatives state that shortly before the Congress gathered to verify electoral votes, Trump claimed to his supporters "we won this election, and we won it by a landslide". They say through his he encouraged people to get out and incited them.
There have been many question raise to the fact that since he is going to leave office on January 20th, what is the point in the impeachment process?
However, there are two significant reasons why the impeachment process is important regardless of the time he has left in office.
The first reason is from a legal and technical standpoint. According to the constitution, if a president is impeached and convicted they will be removed from office and can not run for any future office position. Although, his removal will not significantly (if at all) shorten his presidency, it will prevent any future chance of him gaining power in any seat of office.
The second reason is to set a precedent for the future and to protect the integrity of our democracy. If Trump is not impeached what's stopping others in the future to follow in his actions and call a riot every time they lose an election?
Trump has been impeached before but was not convicted in Senate. What happens in the future if the Senate aligns with the party of the president and doesn't convinct them in fear of losing votes not because of their view on the situation at hand? However, even if House of Reps. was to vote that is a possibility in future. Would it make more sense for all of Congress to vote on the matter?
3 comments:
While I think it is unlikely that the President is impeached before the end of his term, I agree with Sanya that some condemnation on the President's power, whether that be impeachment or invoking the 25th Amendment, is necessary. To put it a little extremely, the government will lose their legitimacy if they allow Trump and his followers to set a precedent of ignoring the democratic when they disagree with its outcome.
However, if Congress does take some action against the President, should we fear another violent attempt to delegitimize a legal decision? Is removing the President from power, by taking away his role as President, disallowing his ability to run again, and silencing his calls to question legitimate process by banning him from social media, truly protecting the country from another potential coup attempt or only dividing us more?
With inauguration day fast approaching, the House is continuing on with impeachment claims while simultaneously calling on Vice President Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment, thus removing President Trump from office. While such impeachment resolutions will take days to be approved, many insiders are diligently working to speed up the process. Pence has still not engaged with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi on whether he will assume the powers granted by the 25th Amendment, but the House Democrats fight on, diligent to impeach the president for his actions. Trump undermined the American democracy and security of the nation, and it is clear that condemnation is necessary in preventing a similar insurgence to take place again.
Even with the push from the House, the impeachment process could take months and is an unlikely end result. With President-elect Biden prioritizing another economic relief bill, many are also evaluating whether or not impeachment is necessarily the correct response. While Trump clearly incited the violence that broke out at the U.S. Capitol, some are urging lawmakers and politicians to acknowledge possible division and anger that may spew from such an act, further dividing the nation where other forms of punishment may be more suitable and effective at getting the message across.
In my opinion, Trump’s actions and those of his administration as far as they relate to the Capitol riots clearly deserve impeachment and punishment. However, I’m also coming to the belief that this should not be our top priority, for many of the reasons stated. Most importantly, we are in the middle of a pandemic with thousands of people dying each day; now is not the time to debate whether or not we should impeach. Now is the time for Congress to focus all their efforts in COVID-19 vaccine distribution and protocols. They can save lives in this way instead of engaging in partisan battles to gain the necessary votes for impeachment and conviction. Moreover, the Senate is not likely to support this measure in the upcoming days, by which time Trump will be out of office (Republicans have largely turned on him now, so there is less likelihood of actual challenges pushing back Biden’s inauguration. Trump has also conceded.). Again, our lackluster vaccine distribution as of now should be the problem we give our almost undivided attention because we are far behind schedule. Whether or not Trump can serve in government again is not as important, and I feel as though he’s besmirched his reputation enough that he will not be a contender for any major office in the future (he may not even run for one besides teasing candidacy). There aren’t enough white supremacists to uphold him; I’m sure most conservatives can find other GOP candidates who don’t endorse violence. Finally, I believe that the large outpouring of criticism against Trump for his actions suggests that there is little need for a precedent on how to respond to a president trying to stage a post-election coup. Why? The American public is already largely against it, and no other candidate in the future would be likely to try something akin to this fiasco by egomaniac Trump. Not to mention that the Capitol will have better security.
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