Final Days
Second impeachment impractical before inauguration, conviction near impossible after
With just days to go until President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated into office, Congressional Democrats are pushing to impeach incumbent President Donald Trump for his alleged role in inciting riots that resulted in some of his supporters storming the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to interfere with the House and Senate’s Constitutional duties to certify the electoral college results.
Three people died as a result.
Federal authorities have arrested several of the rioters involved and are searching for others. But President Trump is the focus of Democrats anger. And they are out for blood.
For a few days now there has been talk about Vice President Mike Pence and the Cabinet invoking the 25th Amendment to the Constitution to remove the president from office. That doesn’t appear likely. So the impeachment sword rattles. It’s just that, for now at least.
An impeachment would have to be tried in the Senate. The Senate is not in session until January 19, the day before Biden’s inauguration. To reconvene before that would require unanimous consent of the senators and that just won’t happen. All it takes is one Trump loyalist to object.
So it’s almost certain President Trump will serve his full term before — unhappily and unwillingly — handing the office over to his successor. And he may come back in four years to try and get the job back.
Will he be impeached after leaving office and barred from holding office? There is some question about whether that’s possible, but many legal scholars believe the Constitution does allow for that scenario.
So it could happen, but conviction is highly unlikely. The Democrats will have a bare majority in the Senate and it takes a two-thirds supermajority to convict. Considering President Trump still has — and will have for years to come — millions of supporters among Republican voters, there is little practical chance enough GOP senators would risk voting for conviction.
Democrats may pull another rabbit from their hats. But without an impeachment conviction and a subsequent vote to bar him from holding office in the future, voters may see Donald Trump on their ballots again.