Trump

[Paigntonian]

impeached for a second time. Ten Republicans vote for impeachment.

[bednobs]

"And if people don't think that what's happening in The States isn't interesting then they shouldn't be on a site like AB"
i cant quite work out what that triple negative sentence means, but if you mean you have to be interested in american politics to ask or answer a question on answerbank, i disagree. Answerbank is also for people who need to know what the answer to 2 down is, what they could do about the lump on their leg, what the ingredients in dr pepper are and where brittany spears got her top from.
BTW i am not disinterested in american politics, just you have alreadt started 2 threads about exactly the same topic tonight. Had you already forgotten you'd started them?

[jim360]

I'm sure that Jackdaw is right that 67 is a tall order (and likely won't be reached), but I have to say I'm optimistic that at least some Republican Senators will convict. If we were taking bets I'll say at least half a dozen will vote for. Perhaps, too, the fact that the trial itself will not happen this week makes a conviction (and barring from office) more likely, because it will be largely symbolic.

[Spungle]

So it's just a free for all debating forum, with no need to ask a question? I think you may have missed the whole point of Answerbank.

Seeing as you asked me a question, my personal opinion is that the partisan vote only continues the division that Biden claims he is keen to heal. Dragging another pointless impeachment against an ex-President achieves nothing, and only deepens the divisions. A week from now, Trump's gone, and they should unite behind the new President. Instead of which the news will just be full of Trump Trump Trump and Biden's message of national unity (presuming it is sincere) will be completely lost. He is already worried that he won't be able to get emergency legislation through because the Senate will be absorbed with another pointless Trump debate. Move on.

[chrissa1]

On Facebook I have two friends in America. One is a staunch Trumpist and the other is a Democrat. I’ve noticed this week that the Trumpist friend has not been posting about her adoration for DJT as she used to do. Interesting.

[jim360]

What are Trump's plans to help the country unite behind the new president that he insists is illegitimate and has stolen the election from him?

[ichkeria]

Warren Hastings (not to be confused with Warren Harding) was a Governor General in India who was impeached in the late 18th century

[ummmm]

Charissa - because he incited a riot.

[Jackdaw33]

Impeachment does not necessarily mean barred from future office. If the Senate did vote to impeach then a second vote would be necessary for disbarment to be effective.

[jno]

don't forget Andrew Johnson, ichkeria

[gulliver1]

Even more Republicans would have voted to Impeach Trump Paigntonian. But were frightened in case reprisals were taken against their Family. How sad.

[ichkeria]

I hadn’t jno: Johnson and Clinton (not Nixon, or indeed James Buchanan, who both came close)

[jno]

quite right, ichkeria, apologies for misreading

[andy-hughes]

I can only think that - given that the impeachment process is unlikely to reach its conclusion with a positive result, it has been brought in order to taint Trump's legacy and scupper any plans he has to run for office again.

It will be very very hard to sell a candidate who has made history by being the only President to be impeached twice - the result won't overshadow the embarrassment of that simple fact.

The meagre defence of - he was not actually impeached - will be destroyed by the simple fact that enough serving politicians thought that he should be, and death blow is the number of Republicans who crossed the floor to add their voices to his condemnation.

No doubt the president will add this into his election folder - that special place for things that never actually happened.

[jim360]

Trump has been actually impeached -- a mere vote in the House of Representatives is a vote to Impeach. What he hasn't been yet is convicted (and, as Jackdaw says, that may be unlikely). We'll have to wait until later in the month to see if that will happen.

[shoota]

It has probably been delayed to head off serious trouble:
'The FBI has also received information in recent days on a group calling for “storming” state, local and federal government courthouses and administrative buildings in the event President Donald Trump is removed from office prior to Inauguration Day.'
https://abcnews.go.com/US/armed-protests-planned-50-state-capitols-fbi-bulletin/story?id=75179771

[Spungle]

Impeachment is simply a political statement- a simple majority is needed to impeach. And now Democrats run the Senate, they could have impeached Trump anytime since they held this majority. The next stage is a Senate trial, and for that they would need two thirds majority to convict the President. Given the fact there is very little evidence been presented that Trump incited anything, and that only 10 Republicans voted for impeachment it is highly likely that the impeachment will come to nothing. And be shown for the political stunt that it is. In the meantime, instead of using Biden's new mandate to get the country united and get some positive legislation through Senate, the country is going to be absorbed with Trump. And that's exactly what he wants, more publicity. Biden was right to call for peace, and should have welcomed Trump's call for an orderly transition. Time to move on folks...

[jim360]

Why welcome something that came two months too late, was obviously forced, and was in any case undermined by the repeated (false) claim that the election was stolen?

Same question as before: why is the onus only on everybody else to move on, rather than on Trump to abandon his pretence that the election was stolen and to get fully behind Biden?

[royfromaus]

jno
good. His first impeachment was low-grade stuff that hardly deserved the time and effort
__________________________________

Yes, I remember you saying so at the time, jno...I think.

Plenty on here who devoted time and effort on it.

[Spungle]

Trump is a fiddling day end of a firework, let it die out, ignore it, let it fizzle, don't pour flames on, don't give it oxygen. Let him go and play golf and let the new Biden team get their jobs done, run the country and let the fire both sides are stoking die down. Otherwise Trump is going to be on the news every day for months, and that's all he wants, bad publicity is better than no publicity for him. Give Biden some elbow room to kick start his Presidency rather than be held back by political bickering in the Senate.

[ichkeria]

If Trump would simply say he now accepts albeit reluctantly that the election was not “stolen” it would make a huge difference to everything.
The earliest the impeachment trial could take place is actually the day before the Inauguration.
Trumo won’t need to be removed from the White House. That was never a likelihood