As Democrats move forward with President Donald Trump’s post-term impeachment trial, a key question remains: Will Court President Roberts accept the case?
Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky says no – making the exercise “a false party impeachment,” the legislator told Fox News Sean Hannity on Friday.
Paul stated that Roberts “said in particular that he should not come unless it is an impeachment of The President. “
According to the United States Constitution, “when the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice must preside” – a requirement not made for any other impeachment case.
While lawmakers debated the legitimacy of impeachment, the Biden government continued to keep its distance from the issue.
“Congress will do what Congress does,” said Ashley Etienne, communications director for Vice President Kamala Harris, to MSNBC on Saturday.
One thing that Trump’s enemies in Congress seem to be doing is clinging to anything – even reaching a post-Civil War amendment.
Several Democrats have suggested punishing Trump with the 14th Amendment rule, which excludes from the elective office those who “have been involved in insurrection or rebellion”.
“I certainly think there is a separate 14th Amendment avenue and beyond impeachment,” Senator Chris Murphy for Connecticut told The Hill.
But the constraint, which was written to prevent ex-loyalist Confederates from regaining power while the United States fought for Reconstruction, has not been used since – and would trigger a long legal battle if Congress tried to invoke it, legal experts say.
Meanwhile, as Trump was no longer in the White House, Republicans like Paul continued to ridicule impeachment as “an illegitimate procedure”.
Roberts, who has not publicly said whether to preside over the trial, has two more weeks to decide.
After House of Representatives impeachment managers read his impeachment articles accusing Trump of inciting the deadly January 6 riot, the Senate will postpone the trial until the week of February 8 so that President Biden can put his government on hold. functioning, Majority leader Chuck Schumer announced on Friday.
If Trump is convicted by a two-thirds majority of the Senate, Schumer could call a second vote, requiring only a simple majority, preventing him from holding an elective office again.
But the sentencing will require the votes of at least 17 Senate Republicans – an increasingly remote possibility, as more party members embark on Paul’s argument that only one incumbent president can be removed.
“It will be difficult to get even a handful” of Republican defectors, Senator Mike Braun (R-Ind.) Told CNN – because “everyone has an opinion that it is a kind of constitutional concern”.