Tag Archives: impeachment

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Debate is brisk, but unconvincing

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The House of Representatives is winding down its debate over whether to impeach Donald J. Trump.

It’s been brisk, impassioned, fast-moving, mostly mannerly to the great credit of politicians on both sides of the great divide.

It also has been wholly unconvincing to me. I also suspect it has changed a single mind among those who believe the impeachment is a non-starter.

To my mind and heart, Trump committed an impeachable act when he told the rioters to “walk down to the Capitol” and “take back the country.” He should be impeached. He is about to be impeached a second time and put on trial — eventually — in the Senate.

Trump will be gone from the office next week. My hope is that the Senate will convict him and deny him the chance to seek federal public office ever again.

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It’s a ‘go’ for impeachment

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The die is cast in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Vice President Mike Pence is not going to push for Donald Trump’s removal via the U.S. Constitution’s 25th Amendment. Trump isn’t likely to resign.

That leaves the House only with the impeachment option. It will follow that course today with one specific aim, it appears to me. It is to prevent Trump from ever seeking public office again … forever.

A House impeachment will land in the Senate likely after Trump leaves office, so removal from the presidency doesn’t appear to be an option. That leaves the House impeachment managers with the task of persuading two-thirds of the Senate to convict Trump of “incitement of insurrection,” which carries a lifetime punishment of keeping him from seeking office.

You know what? I am more than fine with that. Yes, I had argued earlier that the Senate could return immediately and commence an expedited trial.

That won’t happen.

You know the story. Trump incited the rioters to stampede up Capitol Hill, where they stormed into the Capitol Building itself where Congress was performing its constitutional duty to certify President Biden’s victory over Trump on Nov. 3. Trump argues to this moment the election was “stolen.” It wasn’t. Yet he sought to actually prevent Congress from doing what it was obligated to do in ratifying an Electoral College victory for Biden.

He sought to subvert the democratic process. Indeed, many of the rioters were seen with nooses, zip ties, they shouted “Hang Mike Pence!” and shouted out “Where’s Nancy (Pelosi, speaker of the House)?”

Can there be a conviction, given that it would require 17 GOP senators to cross over? Two days ago it looked impossible. Today, not so much. GOP Senate Leader Mitch McConnell is said to be supportive of the impeachment effort, signaling a willingness to convict Trump when the Senate receives the single impeachment article. That suggestion might open the door for other Senate Republicans to join him. I can think of at least three others who are in the “convict Trump” category.

Trump’s days as president are all but over. The rest of the story still needs to play out. I want him banished from seeking federal public office.

It’s not too much to ask our senators to show courage and fealty to something other than to Donald Trump … you know, such as the oath they took to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. 

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GOP firewall is collapsing

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Well now, the Republican firewall that held firm against attacks the president of the United States is finally starting to fall apart.

Donald J. Trump will be impeached by the House on Wednesday. What makes this impeachment so much more meaningful  than his first impeachment is the presence of GOP House members who are joining their Democratic colleagues.

The word is out. U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney will vote to impeach Trump; so will Rep Adam Kinzinger. Same with Rep. John Katko. They’re all Republicans. What’s more, Cheney comes from longstanding GOP stock, being the daughter of former Congressman/White House chief of staff/Defense Secretary/Vice President Dick Cheney.

Republicans begin turning on Trump – POLITICO

Oh, and there’s more. Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Senate’s GOP leader, is expressing what is being called “broad support” of the impeachment movement under way in the House and is indicating a desire to vote to convict Trump once the single article finds its way to the Senate.

The House will impeach Trump on a single count of “incitement of insurrection,” which Trump clearly did when he exhorted a crowd of mobsters to march to Capitol Hill while Congress was meeting to ratify Joe Biden’s election as president. The mob, as you know, ransacked the Capitol Building, resulting in the deaths of five people — including a Capitol Police officer.

As a former Trump ally said, “If this isn’t an impeachable offense, I don’t know what is.”

This is getting pretty dramatic … ain’t it?

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Yep, Trump is, um … consequential

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald J. Trump has redefined the term “consequential,” as in he has been a “consequential president” for most of the four years he held the office.

The greatest consequence of the Trump tenure as president is about to occur this week. The U.S. House of Representatives is a lead-pipe cinch to impeach for the second time. To be clear, it appears to be equally certain that this impeachment won’t result in Trump’s removal from office. He’s only got nine days to go before President Biden takes the oath of office.

However, the guy who always wanted to make a name for himself — whether it was in business, in entertainment and now in politics — is going to hit the big time, if you know what I mean.

President Andrew Johnson got impeached and came within a single vote in the Senate of being convicted. President Bill Clinton got impeached and the Senate never came close to convicting him on any of the three articles it considered. Then came Trump’s first impeachment. He, too, skated clear with little to worry. Why? Because the GOP caucus in the Senate — except for Mitt Romney of Utah — lacked the guts to do what needed to be done; Trump needed to be convicted for seeking dirt on Biden from a foreign government.

Now he’s done it! He incited the riot that damaged the Capitol Building. It killed five people, including a D.C. Metro police officer. Trump called for an insurrection against the government. It’s on the record. We all saw him do it. We heard the words. He wanted the mob to prevent Congress from ratifying Biden’s election as president in 2020.

Now the House is going to make history by impeaching Trump a second time. House members will make the case that Trump must be barred from holding any federal office in the future. I am not at all confident they will persuade enough Republican senators to show the courage they need to keep this presidential idiot out of public office for the rest of his life.

But … by golly, Donald Trump has shown himself to be a “consequential president.” 

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How can Trump avoid conviction for this act?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

It’s worth asking, which I will do.

How in the world can Donald Trump walk away from a nearly certain impeachment by the House of Representatives? It’s a rhetorical question, but it’s worth pondering.

Trump stood before a crowd of rioters and urged them to walk to Capitol Hill and try to “take back” the government that someone allegedly stole it from them.

Where I come from, that is inciting a riot. It is against the law. If “no one is above the law,” which Trump has actually acknowledged, then how does the president of the United States avoid being convicted of “inciting an insurrection,” which the single impeachment article alleges against him?

The Democrat-controlled House is all but certain to impeach Trump for the second time in his term as president. The question of the day, of course, rests with the Senate. The House needs a simple majority to impeach, the Senate requires a two-thirds vote to convict. The new Senate will be split 50-50, which certainly makes Senate conviction problematic, given the gutlessness of most Republicans in that body.

By my count, at least three Republican senators are speaking as though they could convict Trump: Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Mitt Romney of Utah. The rest of ’em? It’s a crap shoot for some of the GOP caucus, not so much for too many of them.

What remains to be seen and heard, though, is their rationale for voting “no,” if it comes to that.

Trump has few political friends, especially now that he has incited the riot that sought to topple the very fabric of our government. Were the Republicans who serve in the Senate who plan to acquit Trump had any sense of the gravity of what he has done, they would pivot immediately and do right by the Constitution they all swore an oath to protect.

To my earlier point, I will await the discussion on why Trump should walk free of the serious crime he clearly has committed against the government he once ran.

national news

Ulterior motive surfaces

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

There appears to be an ulterior, but noble nonetheless, motive behind the House of Representatives’ effort to impeach Donald Trump a second time, just days before he leaves office.

The House will vote Tuesday or Wednesday to impeach Trump for inciting the riot that erupted on Capitol Hill this past Wednesday. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi knows the Senate won’t take the measure up until no earlier than Jan. 19; Joe Biden will take office the next day.

The Senate won’t consider the impeachment article possibly for weeks, maybe months from now. The aim I have read is to give President Biden some time to get the executive branch of government formed, confirmed by the Senate and then getting them all to work on solving the myriad problems confronting us.

The ulterior motive? It is to ban Trump from ever seeking public office again. House members could insert language into the single impeachment article that says Trump must not be allowed to run for president, or for that matter for a school board or county commissioner seat ever again.

He incited the riot that killed five Americans. He sought to overturn the results of a free and fair election. He needs to be punished for it. If the Senate trial won’t convict him and, thus, toss his sorry a** out of office, it has the authority to rule that he must be barred from seeking any public office.

We now shall see whether our federal lawmakers can complement that authority with the will to do what is right.

DC riot, Donald Trump, Joe Biden

Put ’em on the record

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I suppose it’s time to face reality.

The U.S. House of Representatives is going to impeach Donald J. Trump for a second time, making him No. 1 in the annals of presidential infamy as the only POTUS ever to be impeached twice.

Trump certainly deserved to be impeached and then tossed out for soliciting dirt on Joe Biden from the head of a foreign government. That didn’t come to pass in 2019. The Senate acquitted him because only one Republican senator — Mitt Romney of Utah — had the courage to stand up against Trump and stand for the Constitution.

Now, though, comes the second impeachment on a charge of inciting an insurrection against the federal government. As Trump’s former friend/ally/confidant Chris Christie — the former New Jersey governor — said, if that isn’t an impeachable offense, “then I don’t know what is.”

The reality though is that the House impeachment won’t result in a Senate trial in time for Trump to be booted out of the White House. He’s only got 10 days to go before President Biden takes the oath along with Vice President Kamala Harris.

An impeachment, though, does have value. Once the Senate gets the articles of impeachment, House and Senate defenders of Trump will have been forced to explain why in the name of love of country they oppose impeaching and/or convicting him of the crime for which the House will contend he committed.

They all will cast their votes. Some of them might make public statements. Whatever the case, the public will know who these individuals are and will be able to hold them accountable for their statements and (in)action.

Trump’s inciting of the mob this past Wednesday is, as CNN commentator John Avlon noted, “history book stuff.” That single act will be written into our nation’s history, where it will stand forever as a testament to the ugliness of the time that we ushered with the election of Donald John Trump as president of the United States.

So, let’s have that debate, shall we? I am looking forward to laughing my a** off listening to those try to defend such despicable — and seditionist — behavior from the president of the United States.

national news

Bring senators back now, Mr. Majority Leader

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

We have 10 days to go before President Biden takes office.

Donald Trump will be gone from the White House. The House of Representatives might impeach the current president a second time, say, by Wednesday or Thursday of this week. House members will consider at least one impeachment article: incitement of insurrection, which to many folks’ view is as impeachable an offense as one can imagine.

If the House impeaches Trump, then the Senate — led at the moment by Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell — would conduct a trial. However, McConnell said the Senate won’t convene until the day before Biden takes office.

Whoa! Hold on! The Senate majority leader can summon senators back to office immediately, declaring a national emergency. He can seek to suspend the rules and then fast-track the vote of senators to determine whether Trump stays in office for the remainder of his term.

I believe it is imperative for the Senate to act quickly, just as it acted to confirm Supreme Court justice after the Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death 11 days before the presidential election.

All of this presumes that Trump won’t quit, or that the Cabinet won’t invoke the Constitution’s 25th Amendment and remove him from office.

It can be done. It should be done. Majority Leader McConnell must not sit idly while Donald Trump — who incited the rioters to storm Capitol Hill this past Wednesday — to walk away from the presidency on his own terms. The riot, as if McConnell and other GOP members of Congress need reminding, put their own lives in peril had the rioters been able to storm the House and Senate while our legislators were doing their constitutional duty in ratifying Biden’s victory over Trump.

Time isn’t on the side of those who want Donald Trump to be held accountable. However, the Senate has the mechanism to move rapidly … which it must do.

national news

Impeach him once more!

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Make no mistake, none at all, that I do not relish the idea of impeaching Donald J. Trump a second time just a few days before the end of his tenure as president of the United States.

But it needs to occur. The House of Representatives reportedly is set to take up debate on Monday of an article of impeachment. My sense is that the Democrats who run the House will be able to fast-track this article, sending it immediately to the Senate for trial.

This individual, Trump, is a danger to the nation. We saw the danger play out in real time on Wednesday. Trump stood before a mob of rioters and implored them to march on the Capitol. They did and all hell broke loose.

Then he told them he “loved” them, repeated the lie about voter fraud in the 2020 election. Oh, and then today Trump said he regrets the violence and that a “new administration” will take over.

The man continues to present a clear a present danger to the nation for every minute he remains in office.

An impeachment doesn’t mean removal. We know that already, given that the House impeached him in 2019, only to watch the Senate acquit him because only one GOP senator — Mitt Romney –had the courage to stand up for the rule of law and the Constitution.

Is this instance different from that one? Will it prompt Republicans in the Senate to steel themselves for what they must do, which is to convict Donald Trump of inciting violence against the government he took an oath to protect? Man, I hope so.

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Wanting to cheer Bolton … but now cursing him

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I wanted to cheer John Bolton when word got out that his memoir would hit the bookshelves.

I am left now only wanting to curse him.

The former national security adviser to Donald John “Liar in Chief” Trump has written a book that lays even more bare what many of us knew already. “The Room Where it Happened” is a blistering tell-all.

He tells us that Trump asked China for help in his re-election effort; he confirms that Trump asked Ukraine for political help in exchange for weaponry; he also tells us that Trump gave China a pass on construction of concentration camps. There’s more, of course.

Why curse him instead of cheer the ex-national security adviser? Because he could have told us all of it during the impeachment of Trump. He didn’t. He sat on it. Why? Bolton says the impeachment was too narrowly focused and had become “too political.” What a crock of fecal matter!

I am cursing Bolton not because I believe his impeachment testimony would change enough minds to convict Donald Trump of abuse of power and/or obstruction of Congress — the charges the House brought to the Senate during the impeachment inquiry.

I curse Bolton because he withheld this information from a public that needed to hear it from someone who, as the book title suggests, was “in the room” when Donald Trump committed these impeachable offenses. He heard this stuff first hand, in real time, at ringside.

The Republican majority in the U.S. Senate that acquitted Trump of the charges brought against him likely would have been unmoved by any Bolton testimony. It’s just that Americans needed to hear this in the context of that impeachment trial and needed to hear GOP senators explain how Trump’s behavior didn’t rise to an offense worthy of his expulsion from office.

John Bolton choked.

I am glad he is speaking out now. I happen to believe what he has said about Donald Trump. I just wanted him to speak out when it really mattered.

Damn you, John Bolton!