Senator Patrick Leahy, who will preside over former President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, was discharged from hospital on Tuesday night after not feeling well earlier in the evening, his office said in a statement.
“The Capitol doctor suggested that Senator Leahy go to George Washington University Hospital tonight for observation, very cautiously,” Leahy’s spokesman David Carle said on Tuesday. “After receiving test results and a thorough exam, Senator Leahy is at home. He is looking forward to getting back to work. Patrick and Marcelle are deeply grateful for the good wishes they received tonight.”
An early evening statement announcing that Leahy had been taken to the hospital said that “Senator Leahy was in his Capitol office and not feeling well”, but that he was taken to the hospital “[o]very cautiously. “
The Vermont Democrat, 80, is the oldest senator and the fifth oldest senator of all time. As Senate pro tempore president, he is third in line for the presidency, after vice president Kamala Harris and mayor Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Who is also 80 years old.
LEAHY HOPES THAT HE WOULD PRESIDENT IMPEACHMENT TRIAL ON TRUMP, INSTEAD OF THE CHIEF OF JUSTICE ROBERTS
On Monday, it was announced that Leahy, as president pro tempore, will preside over Trump’s impeachment trial, rather than court president John Roberts. A Senate source told Fox News that senators preside when the individual impeachment is not currently the president of the United States.
Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., later said on MSNBC that “it was up to John Roberts if he wanted to chair with a president who is no longer sitting, Trump, and he doesn’t want to do that.”
“The president pro tempore has historically presided over impeachment trials for non-presidents in the Senate. In presiding over an impeachment trial, the president pro tempore takes an additional special oath to do impartial justice in accordance with the constitution and laws,” said Leahy in Monday of his role overseeing the impeachment trial. “It is an oath that I take extremely seriously.”
He added: “I consider that taking office as president pro tempore and the responsibilities that come with it are one of the greatest honors and most serious responsibilities of my career. When I preside over former President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, I will not waver from my constitutional and sworn obligations to administer the trial fairly, in accordance with the Constitution and the laws. “
US Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) speaks while Senate minority leader Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) listens during a press conference in front of the US Capitol after a boycott of the Judiciary Committee hearing of the Senate on the appointment of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court on October 22, 2020. Leahy will chair former President Trump’s second impeachment trial. (Photo by Alex Wong / Getty Images)
The person presiding over the trial will have a limited role and is not expected to substantially affect the process. Leahy said on Monday that he believes he will be able to preside over the trial effectively and impartially.
“I have chaired for hundreds of hours over the years … I am under the responsibility,” he said.
Leahy is president pro tempore because he is the oldest member of the majority party – while Democrats and Republicans control 50 seats each, Harris manages to break ties. Senator Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, was president pro tempore when Republicans held the majority in the Senate.
DEMOCRATIC SENATOR PRESIDING THE IMPEACHMENT OVER TRUMP PLEDGES TEST IMPARTIALITY DESPITE CALL FOR CONVICTION
House impeachment administrators transmitted the impeachment article, which accuses Trump of inciting an insurrection, to the Senate on Monday. The senators were sworn in as impeachment jurors on Tuesday.
An agreement between Schumer and Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., On how to structure the trial has postponed the main part of the trial until the second week of February, largely to give the Senate the opportunity to continue to work on confirmation Biden administration nominees. In the meantime, House managers and Trump’s legal team will submit a few rounds of pre-trial summaries.
Trump will almost certainly not be convicted in the impeachment trial. Senator Rand Paul, R-Ky., Raised a point of order on Tuesday about whether a former president’s impeachment trial is constitutional, and everyone except five Republicans said they didn’t.
Former President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at The Villages Polo Club, Friday, October 23, 2020, in The Villages, Florida. Trump is the only president to be charged twice. (AP Photo / Evan Vucci)
The argument that the Senate is not allowed to hold a trial for an individual who is no longer in office will give Republicans a convenient reason to vote against Trump’s conviction – and thus avoid irritating him or his base – at the same time. time when it will not endorse its post-election conduct as acceptable.
Trump, in the two months after the presidential election, repeated false claims that he had won the election and that there was evidence of widespread fraud. Trump then summoned his supporters to Washington, DC for a “wild” rally on January 6, where he doubled his assertions just before Congress met in a joint session to certify the results of the presidential election.
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Trump did not explicitly call for violence and specifically asked his supporters to march “peacefully and patriotically” to the Capitol to ask Congress to overturn his loss. But Trump and his allies on stage used the rhetoric they had been using for months, and after the rally a pro-Trump crowd stormed the Capitol and ransacked the building, forcing hundreds of lawmakers and former Vice President Mike Pence to hide.
The former president, immediately after the attack, was strongly condemned by those on both sides of the corridor, with many saying he did not do enough to prevent the attack as it was happening.
But since the attack, Republican anger has receded, as shown in the vote on Paulo’s point of order on Tuesday. Even at the top of the caucus, McConnell, who previously left the door open for voting to condemn Trump, joined 45 of his colleagues in saying that the trial is not even allowed. It would take 67 votes in the Senate to condemn Trump.
Jason Donner of Fox News contributed to this report.