Eventually U.S. senators will decide whether President Donald Trump is guilty of charges brought by impeachment proceedings approved by the House. If that comes about, his term in office will fall nearly a year short of completion.
Then, Vice President Michael Pence, by virtue of the 25th Amendment, will assume the presidency.
Trump is accused of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
The charges appear substantial, and steady streams of new evidence and allegations, occurring almost daily at this point, have only added to their gravity. The question is whether such charges violate Constitutional allowances that give the president sway and rise to the level of “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”
In recent years the partisan divide in both branches of Congress has been pervasive. And despite such extraordinary times, it seems ordinary loyalties will win the day once again in Washington, as partisanship is likely to hold in the Senate’s trial.
Yet hope springs eternal, and ours is that the upper house of Congress, always considered the more august body, will carefully weigh the evidence before coming to a decision. To categorically decide the outcome ahead of trial is an affront to American jurisprudence, and at this stage, the refusal to even admit witness testimony insults all notions of impartiality.
And although we doubt he would, Trump himself should ask for no less consideration than a fair trial.
IMPEACHMENT occurs when a simple majority of House members agree charges are egregious enough for a federal official to be removed from office.
The first impeachment came when the nation was young. William Blount, a U.S. senator from Tennessee, was charged in 1797 with conspiring with the British to seize Spanish-held land in Florida and Louisiana. Charges were dismissed for want of jurisdiction, as Blount had already been expelled from the Senate.
Two presidents, Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, have been impeached and tried. Both were acquitted, Johnson by a single vote in 1868. Speculation was President Richard Nixon would have been impeached in 1974, from the break-in of Democratic headquarters in the Watergate complex, had he not resigned on Aug. 9, 1974, before deliberations were completed in the House.
Secretary of War William Belknap was tried and acquitted in 1876; eight of 15 judges have been convicted.
Since 1833, impeachment at any level has occurred infrequently, and its conviction is even rarer. A guilty verdict in the Senate requires a two-thirds majority vote, 67 of 100 senators.
Trump’s immediate advantage from his perspective is that 53 seats are held by Republicans. Of the other 47, two are independents — Bernie Sanders, Vermont, and Augus King, Maine — and 45 Democrats.
Sanders, a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, has made it abundantly clear he will vote to convict Trump. Kansas senators Jerry Moran and Pat Roberts have indicated support for Trump.
When the Senate vote will occur is anyone’s guess.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has a key role in deciding the vote. McConnell has been far less than subtle in his support for Trump, going so far as to say that he has coordinated his strategy with the White House, and some observers have speculated he might prolong the process to interfere with Democratic nomination campaigns; another instance of always putting one’s party first.
