General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: 14th Amendment, Section 3. " No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress ... [View all]DallasNE
(8,019 posts)Impeachment applies to all officers in all branches of government. The 1976 letter does not cover the VP, only the President. The 14th Amendment lists a number of officers, including State officers, but does not specifically mention either the President or Vice President. I'm sure the 14th Amendment was worded the way it was to assure people from the old confederacy could be dealt with should they not be loyal to the post slavery America. The assumption was probably that the President and Vice President would not have ties to the old confederacy so there was no need to include them. Trump proved them wrong.
Since the rioters wanted to hang the Vice President and he refused to go along with the plot the VP is clear. Trump is not. Under current rules, including the 1976 letter, Trump would first need to be impeached and then tried for the crimes. It would be wise to replace that 1976 letter with one that would create classes of crimes. The class of High Crimes could be pursued immediately but a class of common crime could not be brought against a sitting President.
I am not an attorney.