House Majority James Clyburn (D-SC) on Sunday raised the possibility of House Democrats choosing to wait until after President-elect Joe Biden’s first 100 days in office to send any articles of impeachment against President Trump to the Senate.
Impeach him again then if you want, but he needs to go. NOW.
Utter stupidity. Judis is right; impeachment after he leaves office is just a gift to Republicans and does nothing for the country.
I will remind folks, including James Clyburn, that by Jan 22nd, Democrats will control the senate, and thus set the rules for the trial after impeachment. This time there will be a trial with witnesses, and regular senate business can happen in the morning. We’re not playing Moscow Mitch’s stall and block game anymore.
Prediction: by February 1 republican senators will be whining about their workload.
This would be a smart move. The trial is going to take time, and the Senate needs to go through confirmations for Cabinet members, particularly for the DOJ. Impeach and wait, but do impeach.
Edit, longer argument by Marcy Wheeler:
If Trump floats, he’s guilty.
I hear you but Rump isn’t going to resign. Pence and the Cabinet that remains won’t do anything and Rump has been silenced by social media.
We shall see.
Um, no. Stop fucking around and out-thinking yourselves. Do it now. The Trumper insurrectionists just tried a coup, but Clyburn is worried about the convenience of the Senate’s calendar? Fuck the Senate. If they won’t do their jobs, that’s on them, but do your damn job now.
I don’t think he’ll resign either. I think impeachment should move forward whether or not it is likely to end in removal. No quarter for traitors.
With respect to the Congressman but no. No. No. Trump tried to install himself as an unelected dictator. He tried to have the votes of millions of people including my damn self set aside. NO. It’s outrageous he hasn’t been forced to resign by now and been indicted but at any rate IMPEACH HIM. JFC what does he have to do to face consequences?
ETA: Agreed—it’s equally urgent to investigate everything. We have justified suspicions that outrageous crimes were committed. Have a commission led by proven public servants and a robust investigatory staff. Keep the grandstanding GOP members the hell away from it. And let’s see how quickly Congress can move with Democratic leadership to do its business helping this country. There’s nothing here that precludes anything else happening.
Nah
I quite like and respect Clyburn, but no. Do it now. Send it now and leave it in McConnell’s lap. Set up a commission to do the investigating and let the rest of Congress move forward with Biden’s agenda.
The further we kick the armed-insurrection-against-the-United-States can down the road, the more we normalize it.
It was NOT just “a protest that got out of hand”.
It was planned, organized, and announced in advance.
It was televised live, for all the world to see.
It was a conspiracy with command-and-control execution amid the chaos.
There were conspirators not only in the White House, but – very likely – within law enforcement and the Legislative Branch itself.
This. Is. Not. Normal.
The chambers of the United States Senate were attacked, and Mitch says “No BFD”, we won’t return to work for 10 days.
No investigation, no hearings, no nothing.
Thank god he was not a Senator in December, 1941.
“What’s the rush?”
No and no and no and no. NOW. We do this NOW.
My hot take is that yeah, maybe this isn’t such a bad idea. Either way, he isn’t going to be gone before Biden is sworn in. Delaying the final vote allows 100 days to demonstrate that running the country, and dealing with its innumerable more urgent but maybe only slightly less important crises, is the priority for Democrats. And the cherry for me is that another hundred days of investigation into what happened might just turn over a lot of really slimy rocks about the extent of this conspiracy…
Tha’s my hot take, anyway. I might change my mind as I think about it some more.
I’ll join the chorus of this is very smart. First impeaching in House means the can is NOT being kicked down the road. No one is “backing” off. All that happens is that now the Biden Presidency gets off to a full speed start. It doesn’t matter if the Senate manages to find him guilty NOW or tow months from NOW. And if they do not then either way better to spend the time after Biden gets rolling full steam ahead.
Anger and revenge is not the motive, the longer view of history and what happens in the next six months and few years is what matters. Practically he won’t be removed by impeachment before the 20th, let’s get real here.
They need to impeach him in the House this week.
I agree with a lot of what Marcy Wheeler says pragmatically, however, Moscow Mitch could pressure any Senator that would block the unanimous consent request to bring back the Senate earlier than Jan 19th. Remove them from committees. Threaten them with expulsion. Mitch needs to feel the pressure, publicly for the next 10+ days until he is no longer the majority leader.
Delay means never
TERRIBLE idea. The Democrats don’t realize that Americans have a nano-attention span? ARRRGGGGGHHH.