Impeachment, the 25th Amendment and Trump ’s Final Days

Gene HealyWe started the week with an impeachment debate that looked like a  rewarmed version of the onewe had last year. “Readthe transcript!”: when President Donald Trump got on the phone Saturday to lean on Georgia election officials, was it another “perfect call” or a second, sordid shakedown attempt?By yesterday afternoon we were in entirely new territory: a  violent mob storming and trashing the Capitol, four dead, guns and explosivesseized, Congress evacuated, Vice President Mike Pence fleeing a  mobinspired by the president ’s tweets. “We will never concede,” Trump fumedat the pre ‐​riot rally, “you don’t concede when there’s theft involved. Our country has had enough. We’re not going to take it any more.… if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country any more.”Howard Beale only asked people to yell out of their windows, and he didn ’t have nuclear weapons.As of Wednesday night there were at least 32 House Democratspublicly callingfor a  second impeachment. Though both houses are supposedlydone working until after inauguration, an article of impeachment has already beendrafted for circulation. And today, the incoming Senate Majority Leader called on Pence and the Cabinet totrigger the 25th Amendment and remove Trump from power.Can  either of those things be done? Both? How might the Constitution’s presidential defenestration provisions work here? Let’s take a look.First, impeachment: thearticle of impe...

Source: Cato-at-liberty - January 7, 2021 Category: American Health Authors: Gene Healy Source Type: blogs