Impeaching Trump is just the first step
Bill Press says the president’s impeachment should be followed by his conviction in the Senate.
Don’t despair. Our democracy survives. Our democracy is strong. And our democracy still works. We’ve seen two powerful examples of that in the last few days.
First, just four hours after the mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, the House and Senate reconvened to fulfill their constitutional duty of certifying the vote of the Electoral College, thereby making Joe Biden the 46th president of the United States. An attempted coup could only delay, not prevent, Congress from doing its job.
Second, just one week later, the House met on January 13 to hold Trump accountable for the invasion of the Capitol, impeaching him on a bipartisan vote of 232-197 on the single charge of “Incitement of Insurrection.” Nobody summed up his role in the attempted coup more succinctly than Congresswoman Liz Cheney, third most powerful Republican member of the House: “The President of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack.”
Donald Trump will now go down in history, not only as the most unfit, immoral, vile, and disgusting human being ever to get anywhere near the Oval Office, but as the first president in history to have been impeached twice. And what should we call that? Not “the end of the road,” by any means. Just “a good start.”
In order to hold him responsible for an act of domestic terrorism and a direct attack against the United States, Trump’s repeat impeachment by the House was absolutely necessary. Now two more steps must follow: his conviction by the Senate and ridding Congress of his enablers.
Donald Trump’s conviction by the Senate should be a slam dunk. Senators don’t have to hold weeks of hearings to uncover the evidence: They saw Trump invite the mob to Washington; they heard him unleash them on to the Capitol; and they ran for cover when his MAGA thugs stormed the building. As former New Jersey Republican Governor Chris Christie told ABC News, “If inciting to insurrection isn’t (an impeachable offense), I don’t really know what it is.” It shouldn’t take longer than one hour for Donald Trump to make history again, becoming the first president ever convicted by the Senate and banned from holding public office again.
But even that’s not enough. Our democracy will not be secure until not only Donald Trump is held responsible for inciting sedition, but also those congressional Republicans who stood by him to the very end. They’re as guilty of inviting violence as he is, especially those eight senators and 139 House members who voted on January 6 to overturn the Electoral College returns from Arizona and Pennsylvania, even after the Trump mob had invaded and occupied the Capitol, forcing them to flee for their lives.
Consider what that vote meant. This wasn’t just a disagreement on policy: I like Trump’s economic plan better than Nancy Pelosi’s, for example. This was a vote to perpetuate the lie that the election was stolen, and to undermine the most sacred principle of our democracy: that the people, not the incumbent president, nor the Congress, choose the next president. That vote was in itself an act of sedition. It was, in effect, an endorsement of the bloody insurrection that had just scarred the Capitol.
We know who those eight senators and 139 representatives are, and we know where they come from. Every last one of them should be expelled from Congress for sedition against the United States of America. If that doesn’t happen, the business community, labor unions, and every patriotic American should unite in a massive, focused campaign to toss them out of Congress the next time they’re up for reelection. This nation will never heal until we clean house and get rid of both Trump and his enablers. Join me in pledging to send a check to every one of their opponents.
Final Note: Maybe I’m oldfashioned, but, no matter who the new president was, I’ve always loved the rituals of Inauguration Day: the outgoing president welcoming the incoming leader to the White House for coffee; their ride up to the Capitol together; the oath of office; the Inaugural Address; the lift-off of the now former president; the Inaugural Parade; the new First Family in the viewing stands; the Inaugural Balls. It was all so festive and such a powerful reminder that this great democracy lives on stronger than ever. This year, thanks to one ugly man, we’ll be deprived of all of that ceremony. Just one more reason to impeach Donald Trump.