McCarthy says he's willing to look at expunging a Trump impeachment

[brooklynite]

Source: Washington Post

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said Thursday that he’s willing to take a look at expunging an impeachment of former president Donald Trump by the Democratic-led House.

Trump — now a 2024 candidate — was impeached twice during his four-year presidency: in 2019, for withholding military aid from Ukraine in exchange for political favors, and in 2021, for inciting the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

In the previous Congress, groups of Republicans floated resolutions to expunge both impeachments. Supporters of the latter included Rep. Elise Stefanik (N.Y.), the Republican conference chairwoman.

Asked at a news conference about the prospect of an expungement now that Republicans control the House, McCarthy said, “I would understand why members would want to bring that forward.”

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/01/12/trump-impeachment-mccarthy-house-republicans/

[Ocelot II]

1. Is that even possible?

[PatSeg]

3. That is what I am wondering

What is the point of impeachment if the opposing party can just undo it later when they are in power?

[melm00se]

16. The power of impeachment

rests solely with the House of Representatives (Article I, section 2). No other federal Constitutional entity can override them. So despite there is no Constitutional language regarding expungement, if the House chooses to expunge an impeachment, there is no course to change them.

The Supreme Court (Nixon v. United States, 1993), based upon the wording in abovementioned Constitutional Article and section, took the position that impeachment actions as well as the attendant Senate trial are nonjusticiable events as they are purely political functions.

The Founding Fathers took a similar view with the position that in the case of impeachments and trials, the House and Senate are answerable to the People and the People alone.

[ShazzieB]

43. Of course Kevin would go along with that.

Anything to keep the hyenas in the Freedom Caucus happy.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

32. It's performance art, brought to you by a salivating corporate media...when will this end??

[oldsoftie]

34. Dont blame the media; they have to report what these idiots say

Its in the Congress. They cant just ignore it because its stupid.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

35. Yes, they can ignore it if it's stupid and can't be done. Like prosecuting women for taking a

legal drug.

Easily as forwarding the art, don’t.

[live love laugh]

44. Performative Politics ✔️

[brush]

64. McCarthy apparently doesn't know he doesn't have to kiss trump's ass...

anymore now that he's Speaker. What a spineless nothing.

[mobeau69]

2. They can't "expunge" them from history.

[PortTack]

6. Exactly..he'll always be the two time impeached loser!

[Walleye]

4. Ron DeSantis will ban it from the history books

[Rebl2]

21. Yep

[AllaN01Bear]

26. ban teath sentance .

[JohnSJ]

5. Just bullshit to his base. They can't "expunge" an impeachment

[niyad]

7. May all involved receive everything they deserve.

[bucolic_frolic]

8. Presto! Watch me put an impeachment back in my hat ....

The public can't unsee what it saw.

[Vinca]

9. Oh, for heaven's sake. Kevin, Kevin, Kevin just get out your MAGA knee pads, fly

down and personally service the wannabe king.

[Pantagruel]

10. Can't expunge that phone call!

"The House of Representatives adopted two articles of impeachment against Trump: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Trump was acquitted by the Senate on February 5, 2020. [2]

Trump's impeachment came after a formal House inquiry found that he had solicited foreign interference in the 2020 U.S. presidential election to help his re-election bid and then obstructed the inquiry itself by telling his administration officials to ignore subpoenas for documents and testimony. The inquiry reported that Trump withheld military aid[a] and an invitation to the White House to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy in order to influence Ukraine to announce an investigation into Trump's political opponent Joe Biden and to promote a discredited conspiracy theory that Ukraine, not Russia, was behind interference in the 2016 presidential election. A phone call between Trump and Zelenskyy on July 25, 2019, was particularly important—whistleblower Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman was a participant in the call and later informed Congress.[4]"

[Marcuse]

49. He expunged them with his mind. The phone call was perfect! What insurrection?

[riversedge]

58. Trumps "mind" was expunged a LONGGGGGGGGGG time ago!

[dweller]

11. Don't ya

Want to do Nixon first ?


✌🏻

[rickford66]

13. Do what ?

[dweller]

14. Good question

✌🏻

[JohnnyRingo]

41. Yeah, just pass a law that says we can't impeach Republicans.

And blanket pardons for every registered republican who ever broke the law. No impeachments, no convictions, and no removal from office. Call it the the Walk On Water Law, or WOW!

[Polybius]

51. He never was impeached

Only Clinton and Trump (twice) were in our lifetimes.

[dweller]

53. busted ...

But you know they want to clear him anyway


✌🏻

[Marthe48]

12. traitor wasn't a minor when he was impeached

He was a big boy, and should have gone to the big house. Getting a criminal record expunged is for hijinks in grade school, not trying to extort a foreign president to smear a guy you don't like, or overthrowing your own country.

[patphil]

15. Maybe they could create sometning called Critical Trump Theory.

And ban any information critical of Trump, including his 2 impeachments, from being taught in the schools across the nation.
It would be part of the white (supremacist) washing of American History.

[WestMichRad]

38. You've put a good name on it

That may be exactly what they hope to achieve. But no matter how hard they try to expunge, plunge and flush, they’ll never eliminate the fetid stain that the twice-impeached Liar in Chief has left behind.

[dchill]

17. While no one was watching...

...I expunged Kevin McCarthy!

Now I need a new spunge!

[BWdem4life]

19. You wasted that spunge

Kevin McCarthy is not ‘spungeworthy

[dchill]

20. Okay, Elaine!

[Polybius]

54. You guys both spell sponge with a u

I thought I was going crazy for a minute.

[Evolve Dammit]

40. yeah. Definitely not "sponge-worthy." Elaine Bennis

[C_U_L8R]

18. Clearly, he's on the Trump payroll

And has absolutely nothing better to do. What a dud.

[MyOwnPeace]

23. Worse than a 'dud'...............

He's in a position of power that could do serious damage to our country - certainly NOT working to make things work better!
Thankfully just about anything he may propose will not even make it to the Senate floor - and even if it did there's a PRESIDENT that would need to sign in any legislation that would become law.

None the less, what a joke and a disgrace for a 'government' official (yeah, I know, just can't come close to matching tRump for the shame cast upon our US government.......)

[keithbvadu2]

48. Indirectly on Putin's payroll...

"There's two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump."

— Kevin McCarthy

[Skittles]

22. more performance for the cult

sickening

[FakeNoose]

24. Expelliarmus!

Or maybe it's "Obliviate"?

[jgmiller]

25. I can't stand McCarthy either but look at what he said

He didn't say he's open to it from what I read, he simply said he can understand why members might want it. It's basically him saying, "I can't say no because then I'm in trouble and I can't say yes because then I'm in trouble." He's already going to have enough problems in 2024 (if he lasts that long) he's not going to add expunging an impeachment to the list. He might even let MTG bring it to the floor so he can look like he's a good guy to his boss and the MAGAs but then 5 members of the GOP vote against it and it's done. He wouldn't even have to work hard at finding the 5, Mace would vote no and probably so would 3 of the new NY house members that need to keep their seats.

[getagrip_already]

27. can we expunge 2020 while they are at it?

I mean I for one would be glad to hear it never happened. Well, except for the election. Everything else was a dumpster fire.

[elias7]

28. Why don't we put the evidence before a real judge or jury.

The congressional Republicans were too cowardly to do the right thing. And there was a right thing here.

[Smackdown2019]

29. Not possible

US Constitution impeached Trump, plain and simple. Its on Record.

Thats is like changing Slavery Legislation. Cant be done.

US Constitution outlines impeachment proceedings and they were followed.

[Haru]

30. A pardon ??

Didn't realize that Congress could Pardon the president>>

[Emile]

31. Which one is he planning to expunge?

[NJCher]

33. Go right ahead, assholes

I can't think of a better historical tribute to your corruption and insanity.

[crickets]

52. 👆👆

[rurallib]

36. apparently they have nothing else to do

until they cause international financial meltdown.

[republianmushroom]

37. Still sucking up are we, Kevin.

The dude just can't get enough.

[Genki Hikari]

39. So try it

But don't cry if you get your way. and then Democrats expunge Clinton's impeachment when they're back in charge.

Sucks to be you, traitor scum.

[Farmer-Rick]

42. That is so stupid

An impeachment isn't a conviction. It's like asking to expunge a trial that found you not guilty. The trial is not a conviction. It happened and the Senate covered for Trump, so no conviction. He has nothing to expunge.

Idiots.

[LT Barclay]

45. This might be more dangerous than silly. Although it does remind me of this debate:

Anyway, I think this is all part of an effort to portray any attempt to prevent Trump from returning to office as evidence of a corrupt system. Where it is dangerous is if they can whip up the Maga crazies enough to take action again. But would blood in the streets end the movement or become a rallying cry and draw out more crazies?

[Turbineguy]

46. Anything to keep from governing.

[keithbvadu2]

47. Revisionist history as Dubya called it.

[NullTuples]

50. The problem is...there's nothing that says they cannot expunge it.

Impeachment is not a trial nor removal from office; those happen in the Senate after the House has voted to impeach. Impeachment is simply a House resolution. And as such can be undone by a House resolution, just like any other that gets repealed, just as long as there was not a conviction by the Senate.

And if they do, Trump would have an even easier time running for office in 2024.

[Midwestern Democrat]

65. Andrew Jackson was censured by the Senate in 1832 - a more Jackson-friendly Senate expunged the

censure in 1837 - so I agree that expunging an impeachment is likely possible.

[NYC Liberal]

55. It would be symbolic and meaningless. In other words, a waste of time.

Typical GOP grandstanding.

Sure, they can pass a resolution saying that the impeachments are “expunged”. After all, he wasn't convicted, so it’s not like they’d be trying to undo a ban on holding office or to reinstate him somehow. The impeachments happened; they can’t erase history. It won’t do anything other than cater to the MAGA base.

[ColinC]

56. I wonder if he has the votes.

I think there are at least 3 Republicans who support impeachment, and I imagine it wouldn't be too hard to find a couple that are against expungement who are more moderate and in Biden districts.

[Joinfortmill]

57. And so it begins, bullshit and more bullshit.

[cstanleytech]

59. So is there a provision in the Consitution that allows them to wipe

out a fact from history?

[raccoon]

60. Just erase it--like the Ministry of Truth in 1984.

I hate Republicans.

[Jim__]

61. My first thought.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

62. Is Kevin going to pull Winston Smith out of retirement?

The Ministry of Truth is going to need someone to head the Records Department.

[Rhiannon12866]

63. Is Andrew Johnson next??