Trump has been impeached for the 2nd time in his presidency

In the last half-hour, the US House of Representatives voted to impeach Donald Trump for a historic second time in his presidency.

The vote was:
Impeach 232 (222 D / 10 R)
Not impeach 197 (0 D /197 R)
did not vote 4 (0 D / 4R)

With only 433 members of the HOR at present, 217 was necessary for a majority, which the Democrats easily cleared.

-Stat

 

Here screenshots from immediate media coverage of this unfolding event:

 

So what? Who cares, in seven days he'll be gone. Bipartisan?

 

The Democratic party is evil. This proves it.

Democrats: Let the inquisition begin!

 

Worst President Ever Donnie Trump: MAKING AMERICA A THIRD-W0RLD COUNTRY AGAIN. A date that will live in infamy in American history.

 

NOBODY from the never-right expected the Democratic Inquisition! lol put them in the COMFY CHAIR!

 

Yes, no investigation. No searching for the truth. Nothing. Just impeachment on feelings.

Dems had best beware. They've made impeachment a mockery. And it will be used against them.

 

after hearing F*CK YOUR FEELINGS!!! for 4yrs this is very precocious lol
when will anybody ever have a chance to do that with most Rs behind bars?

 

This is twice as shameful as when the Republicans impeached Bill Clinton.
And that's really saying something because that was shameful.

Has this become a new norm in American politics? Constant attempts to impeach the President using stupid trivial excuses?

Will this say more about Trump or more about Democrats, when it goes down in the history books?

 

It is not good enough for democrats that he just leaves. They must break him.

 

Well, reading the result [https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/01/13/us/trump-impeachment], the Democrats have gained only some votes from the GOP.
If nothing changes, the Senate will reject the impeachment an other time.

As I've said in an other occasion this is a mere political matter and it will end in a political way ...

 

Good morning.

Today is Thursday, January 14th, 2021.

President Trump has proven that indeed, he is the best at something. He is absolutely the best at getting himself impeached, bigly. YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYY!!!!!!

Yesterday, the US House of Representatives voted to impeach the President for "Incitement of Insurrection". I started a small thread on that topic here, including the vote totals and screenshots of immediate media coverage of the event. It was verifiably the most bi-partisan impeachment vote in our Republic's history. The debate before the vote was not nearly as contentious as I thought it was going to be and even House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said openly that Pres. Trump himself is responsible for the violence and destruction on January 6th, 2021. That's pretty damning. Even Trump bootlicker Gym, oh excuse me, Jim Jordan, looked tired and really not into spitting up too much vitriol. Oh, and once again, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has proven once again that her moniker of "Steel Magnolia" is well earned.

If you wish to see the names of the 10 Republicans who voted to impeach the President, you can find that here. One name on the list surprised my greatly.

Shortly after 6 PM yesterday, Pelosi signed what is called the "Engrossment", which is simply the Impeachment document in large quarto-edition, bound. This document will be transported over to the Senate at a time appointed by the Speaker of the House. When that happens, the Senate is then required by law to schedule and hold a trial, which must end in a vote to convict or acquit. 2/3 of eligible Senators present for the trial is necessary in order to convict. This will be the first time in our Republic's history that an ex-President will have to stand trial in the US-Senate, but it is not the first time for lower office-holders, meaning that there is indeed juristic precedence for this. The Constitution says that the Chief Justice of the SCOTUS must preside as the President of the Senate for the duration of the trial of a sitting president, but it does not specify who must preside in the case of an ex-President, so that is also an important question to be answered in the near future. There is also the upcoming kabuki dance/theater between Chuck Schumer (D) and Mitch McConnell (R) as they switch roles in the US Senate and that will indeed have an influence on how and when these things will play out, once the House has transmitted the Engrossment to the Senate. Incoming President Joe Biden has already very openly indicated that he would be thankful were the Senate to bifurcate the proceedings, meaning, to hold the trial for 1/2 of the day and do regular Senate business for the other 1/2. Joe Biden wants his cabinet to be confirmed as quickly as possible and a lengthy Senate Trial of Donald J. Trump, if it takes up the entire day, would slow down that process. So, there are lots of things to be watching in the next days. One thing is sure: Chuck Schumer now has better cards in his hand than McConnell, and McConnell knows it, too. I would not be surprised at all if McConnell resigns before the end of his term and just gives himself a break.

Later in the evening, in a videotaped address to the nation, outgoing President Trump said the following:



His address to the nation is 5:13 long, it starts at 0:19 and ends at 5:32 on this video clip from CNN.

First, it is the most "traditional" speech he has given during his time in office, completely read from a teleprompter and with him, amazingly, never going off script. He looking unconvincing because he was surely told that this is a "do or die" moment (meant not literally, but rather, figuratively) for the waning days of his presidency.

It is, imo, by far his best speech, but as Jon King of CNN asks: "where was this last week?". Also, Trump has a tendency to say one thing under pressure and then reverse course a number of days later. So, I expect to see the real Donald Trump appear in the next day or so and say something just totally wild which will of course ruin everything that he said in this very nicely made video that was forced upon him like a four year old being told "you WILL eat your spinach, otherwise you will never see a chocolate bar again for the rest of your days, you little ****ing brat!"

So, why did he do it? Well, my own opinion is that he really is scared. He realizes that he did something terrible and although he will never ever admit it, he knows that he is in real danger of being convicted by the US-Senate. He is watching his financial empire crumble all around him, friends and associates are distancing themselves from him at close to light speed, his approval with the American public is totally in the crapper and he knows that when the history books about the age of Trump are written, they are going to pass harsh judgement upon him.

It should be noted that the sore loser and poor sportsman inside Donald Trump still shows: he has yet to say Joe Biden's name specifically as the winner of the 2020 presidential election, nor has he officially conceded in a telephone call to Joe Biden, nor has he congratulated the Democratic ticket. That is truly piss-poor behavior, which deserves the scorn of all thinking Americans. And I am going to be reminding people of this shitty behavior of his for a very, very long time.

It may well be that Trump's oval-office address was entirely aimed at an audience of 34. 34 Senators, that would be, because if he can convince 34 Senators to not vote to convict him, but rather, to acquit him, then he gets off scot-free. As of January 20th, 2021, the Senate will be 50 D / 50 R. All 50 on the D side are going to vote to convict. Yes, at the end of the day, even Joe Manchin (D-WV) is going to do this. At least 5 Rs are very likely to vote to convict right here and right now, among them, Romney (R-UT), Sasse (R-NE), Murkowski (R-AK), Collins (R-ME, although she may just furrow her brow and say in Alzheimer's-speak that she thinks he has really learned his lesson this time) and Portman (R-OH). After Trump accused Rubio (R-FL) of having an extremely small yet ineffective penis in 2015, I can imagine Rubio twittering some really meaningful bible-verses, keeping his mouth shut and voting to convict the *********ker and boom, back to those uplifting bible verses we go.

With Mitch McConnell having deliberately let leak to the press that he himself is considering voting to convict, he is letting all of the R Senators off the leash to vote their consciences which means that you would only need 11 more R Senators to make this a done deal for the history books and with Trump out of office and his post-presidential power waning by the day, a resounding conviction in the Senate is really within the realm of possibility. Mitch McConnell wants to purge the GOP of Trumpism and he knows that the only way he can do this is to keep Trump from ever being a candidate again, and for that, he needs a conviction first and then afterwards, only 51 votes to prohibit Trump from ever holding public office again or raising any political money. If "only" 67 Senators vote to convict, there will be retribution against the GOP Senators. If however, 90-95 vote to convict, there is strength in numbers in repelling the ugly Trump "base". Of course, this is all assuming that all 100 Senators will be eligible to vote, because surely the FBI is already deeply investigating the role of possible co-conspirators from WITHIN the US Congress during the attempted coup of January 6th, 2021 and who knows, they may find some Senators caught in their net when they "hawl" said net in....

Also, let's be brutally honest here, not all of Trump's supporters are the sharpest knives in the drawer and without their daily injection of lies via Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Co, a goodly number of them are going to lose interest in Trump.

So, yesterday was a wild day in our Republic's history, thanks very much to attention-whore Donald Trump who just had to incite this murderous coup attempt. Speaking of whores, the First Whore of the United States of America, you know the one who said "whooo geeeves a sheeet about ****ing Chreeeeestmaaaahs Orrrrnaments", has pretty much already moved out of the White House. She is done with this. Her life will get a lot better. She can get another "kidney" operation, find another nice young marine with 12 inches in his pants to 'protect' her and such while her loving husband his gorging himself on KFC and Diet Coke - and continue her wonderful "be best campaign" that was just oh so sincere. Now, if these harsh words about Melania "Birther" Trump bother anyone, well, tough ****, for entire Trump family has been a disgrace to our Republic, a Republic that deserves much better. The ENTIRE Trump family that was active during these last 5 years deserve our fullest measure of scorn.

The good news is:

In 6 days from today, on January 20th, 2021, Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. and Kamala Devi Harris will be sworn-in as our Republic's 46th President and 49th Vice-President, respectively.



-Stat

 

Actually, just to be clear, we are a nation of laws and a lawless President doesn't get a mulligan just because he broke his oath 2 weeks before his term ends.

I thought that Republicans were these really tough "law and order" types..... oh well, my bad.

 

this was the largest defection rate from the party of the impeached president in all of history.

10 R-votes to impeach is enormous.

 

Well ... that's not "enormous". It's anyway a political indication.
The result of the vote in the Senate will be meaningful as well: it will measure the level of importance as leader [and collector of consensus and votes] that the GOP recognizes to Trump.

To reach 2/3 of the assembly will be well difficult [67 senators in favor of the impeachment], but if 5 or 6 Rep senators will change side the result will have a clear political meaning and value.

Let's wait and see. This morning I read that there won't be an urgency procedure. It seems that the Senate will vote no earlier than January 19th.

 

Not sure what you're considering "precocious" but, no law, no court, nothing that affects millions of people, and definitely no impeachment, should EVER be based on feelings.

The riot happened on the 6th. The impeachment happened on the 13th. That's 5 work days in which no actual hearings were held. If that's not impeachment based on feelings then I don't know what is. And you apparently approve of it.

Just remember, what goes around, comes around. And this WILL come back and bite Democrats in the ass. Mark my words.

 

Except he didn't break the law. :shrugs:

 

No. In terms of impeachment proceedings, it really is enormous. Learn the history of impeachment proceedings before you continue to embarrass yourself.

 

Incitement to Insurrection most definitely breaks the law.

 

Except that he didn't do that. :shrug: "cheer on", "peacefully" "patriotically make your voices heard"....ALL of those were said in the speech that Dems tout as being "incitement". No judge would see those words and rule to convict.

 

File under: they are eating their own again.

Trump is stiffing Guiliani. He is refusing to pay Guiliani since he got impeached for a 2nd time.

Guiliani was supposed to be getting $20,000 per day.

LOL

LOL

They really are eating themselves.

time to stock up on root-beer and popcorn, this is gonna be a helluva good full-cinema movie.

 

Here you go, little buddy:

18 U.S. Code § 2383 - Rebellion or insurrection

Whoever incites, sets on foot, assists, or engages in any rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States or the laws thereof, or gives aid or comfort thereto, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.

(June 25, 1948, ch. 645, 62 Stat. 808; Pub. L. 103–322, title XXXIII, § 330016(1)(L), Sept. 13, 1994, 108 Stat. 2147.)

 

Show me where the words "cheer on", "peacefully" and "patriotically make your voices heard" means in ANY language to "incite rebellion". Trump also tweeted against the violence:

LINK:Trump Urges Rioters at Capitol to Remain ‘Peaceful’

 

About Presidents the history doesn't offer many precedents [so they are not so meaningful statistically]. Just to say ... do you remember Andrew Johnson? In the Chamber there were 2 escaped votes, but he got acquitted in Senate for one vote [one vote more and the 2/3 were there ...]. Among 45 Republicans 10 voted "Nay", with the Dems, and they saved him ...

Then, take a look at the votes about the request of impeachment for Bill Clinton ... [H. Res. 611]
In a votation 28 Reps voted with the Dems, in an other 81 Reps voted with the Dems ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impeachment_of_Bill_Clinton#Acquittal_by_the_Senate