I'm Confused - Some Are Saying Trump Can't Be Impeached - He's No Longer President And....

[global1]

it's unconstitutional. And Trump wants his lawyers to say that he is the rightful president because the election was rigged and stolen from him.

Sounds to me that he is on both sides of the argument.

[Dorian Gray]

1. If he argues

that the election was stolen, they should all vote to impeach immediately. (Rs are too weak for that and will let him run the 2022 midterm and 2024 elections.)

[msongs]

2. he was impeached while he was still in office, perfectly legal nt

[Celerity]

8. +1000

It really is that simple. I have shut DOWN many a MAGAt online with that simple truth. That and the historical precedent of Secretary of War William Worth Belknap.

Meet the other American who was impeached and tried after leaving office

First Read is your briefing from "Meet the Press" and the NBC Political Unit on the day's most important political stories and why they matter.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/meet-the-press/meet-other-american-who-was-impeached-tried-after-leaving-office-n1255516



WASHINGTON — At 7:00 p.m. ET tonight, House managers will present a single article of impeachment against former President Donald Trump for inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol, kicking off a Senate trial whose arguments will start the week of Feb. 8. Several Republicans have coalesced around a defense of Trump — that, under the Constitution, you can’t impeach and remove someone who’s no longer in office.

But there is historical precedent for impeaching and trying to convict a former federal officeholder.

In 1876, as the U.S. House of Representatives was about to vote on articles of impeachment against Secretary of War William Belknap over corruption charges, Belknap walked over to the White House, submitted his resignation letter to President Ulysses S. Grant and burst into tears.

The House still went ahead and impeached Belknap, and the Senate tried him, with the impeachment managers arguing that departing office doesn’t excuse the alleged offense — otherwise, officeholders would simply resign to escape conviction or impeachment. And the Senate voted in 1876, by a 37-29 margin, that Belknap was eligible to be impeached and tried even though he resigned from office.

But Belknap was eventually acquitted, with the Senate failing to muster the two-thirds vote needed to convict. (A significant number of senators believed the Senate lacked jurisdiction to convict him because he no longer held office.) So the Belknap precedent is instructive. Nearly 150 years ago, a majority of senators voted that you could impeach and try a former officeholder — for high crimes and misdemeanors committed while in office. But just enough senators were persuaded that it was pointless to convict.

snip

[DLCWIdem]

3. There's precedent to impeach after person has left office

[hlthe2b]

4. More than 150 leading bipartisan constitutional scholars say otherwise, including Laurence Tribe

They published an opinion weeks ago.

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/21/legal-scholars-federalist-society-trump-convict-461089

[unblock]

5. "It's against the rules" says the man who broke all the rules....

[C_U_L8R]

6. Notice what they haven't said.

They can't say Trump didn't plan, direct, fund and incite the terrorist insurrection. All they have is bullshit.

[Catherine Vincent]

7. He's already impeached

They should say he shouldn't be convicted since he's already out of office.

[marie999]

9. This is going to end up in The Supreme Court.

[dawg day]

10. I doubt John Roberts wants to wade in on this.

He could have said that he was declining to preside because he thought it was unconstitutional, but instead he just begged off.

[dweller]

11. On what precedence should it reach the SCOTUS ?

If he is convicted, and hopefully denied ever holding political office again, it’s done.
Now, the convictions coming from SDNY cases is another whole ball of wax yet to be decided ...

✌🏻

[StarfishSaver]

12. If he's convicted and disqualified from office, it could end up in the Supreme Court

If he runs again and is blocked from getting on a ballot, he'd likely sue, alleging the disqualification is invalid because the Senate did not have the constitutional right to convict and disqualify him as a former president. That would be an appropriate case for the Court to take.

[dweller]

13. Guess we'll see

n/t

✌🏻

[StarfishSaver]

14. Yep

[KentuckyWoman]

15. He was already impeached... twice.

And yes, he yapping out both sides of his face and too whackadoodle to understand the reality of what he's saying.