IMPEACH, CONVICT PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP
President Donald Trump should be impeached, again, by the House of Representatives, and removed from office, at last, by the Senate.
On Jan. 6, on national television, after repeating his baseless claim that states and judges had stolen the November election from him, Trump incited thousands of his supporters to insurrection, encouraging them to march on the Capitol as lawmakers took final steps to formally confirm that Presidentelect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala
Harris would take office Jan. 20.
“Republicans are constantly fighting like a boxer with his hands tied behind his back. ... And we want to be so nice. We want to be so respectful of everybody, including bad people. And we're going to have to fight much harder,” the president said at a rally in
Washington, D.C., organized at his request, before the riot at the Capitol. “We're going to walk down to the Capitol, and we're going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women, and we're probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them, because you'll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.”
“Fight much harder.” “Take back our country.”
“You have to show strength.”
In the subsequent attack, mostly White domestic terrorists overpowered police and swarmed into the building. At least five people, including a police officer and an Ocean Beach woman, died in the day's chaos at the Capitol. Authorities eventually regained control, and the House and Senate completed certifying the election that night. But the images of rioting in the People's House are haunting and unsettling. It's hard to unsee them or unseethe.
His supporters will argue there are reasons not to impeach the 45th president a historic second time.
They will say the House's likely impeachment of him today is pointless because Trump leaves office in a week. They will claim impeachment flies in the face of Biden's frequent declarations that uniting a divided nation is his most important goal. And they will equate impeachment with incitement that could lead to new violence.
Also, lawmakers in both parties fear impeachment would lead to a time-consuming Senate trial that will distract from Biden's efforts to supercharge the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic and to confirm his Cabinet and other administration appointments, let alone to advance his agenda.
Nevertheless, the single worst direct assault on democracy since the Civil War demands a proportionate response. History should record where democracy draws a line even if lawyers might disagree on its immediate impact on Trump. Some scholars believe he would be banned from seeking office again, even if he were convicted after leaving the White House, but whether Trump would still get the standard ex-president's benefits, including a generous pension, funding for an office and staff, and Secret Service protection, could be the subject of a lengthy court battle. Other scholars suggest that a Senate trial of a former top federal official is unconstitutional even though it has happened twice before. The legal murkiness is intense.
But the point of a House impeachment and a
Senate conviction is only partly to punish the president. It is also to send the message that a bipartisan majority of members of Congress agree on one very fundamental point: Those who violate the rule of law must be held accountable — including presidents. It's to make a statement for future governments that our leaders deemed something unacceptable — and for them to choose how their vote will be cast.
It's possible that the Senate will resist convicting
Trump as with his previous impeachment a year ago for attempting to blackmail the Ukraine government into pursuing allegations of corruption by
Hunter Biden, the son of a major political rival. But it is telling that Transportation Secretary Elaine
Chao, wife of Senate Republican Leader Mitch Mc
Connell, abruptly quit Trump's Cabinet after the insurrection. McConnell, of course, was one of hundreds of people who had terrifying reasons to fear their lives were in danger last Wednesday. He has not opposed impeachment as Kevin McCarthy, the
House GOP leader from Bakersfield, has.
Trump's conviction would not limit the threat to democracy posed by the wild conspiracy theories of some of his supporters. It would require law enforcement everywhere to be on guard against more political violence. But Trump and his most ardent supporters should not be indulged. In real time and for all of history, we should record what happened on
Jan. 6, 2021, as a disgrace. Pretending otherwise will not lessen the threat of extremism. Downplaying one insurrection will encourage others.
It's time to impeach and convict the president for his seditious conduct.