Congratulations to the 44 “Trumpublicans” who joined author Rand Paul in voting for his Senate bill to declare unconstitutional, and dismiss, the impeachment trial of Donald Trump. You’ve been had!
Paul didn’t care if the bill won or lost (it lost 55 to 45). He just wanted you to paint yourselves into a corner from which you’d look foolish supporting conviction in a trial you had already deemed unconstitutional. Never mind that it’s the judicial (not the legislative) branch that has the sole authority to determine constitutionality. Paul figured, correctly, that, with the same unthinking zeal that has informed your blind loyalty to Trump for the past four years, you’d jump at the chance to hand the Democrats a summary dismissal. Sen. (and part-time charlatan) Paul must have enjoyed a good laugh to see you all so easily duped by his cynical parlor trick.
Paul also knew that the hearts and minds of jurors, and their constituents, can be swayed by a coordinated, forceful prosecution. He wanted you to show your hand before the trial could move you to convict, even though impartial jurors are bound to defer their decisions until they’ve heard, and carefully weighed, all of the evidence. Notwithstanding your vote on Paul’s illegitimate bill, you can, and must, still do that.
The conviction proceeding against Trump is not unconstitutional. Article I, Section 3 provides that judgment in cases of impeachment can include removal from office and disqualification to hold any office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States. It does not say that such disqualification can only be imposed upon a President who has been removed from office by the Senate (as opposed to having been voted out by the electorate).
The Fourteenth Amendment sets out additional authority to disqualify:
“No person shall…hold any office under the United States … who, having previously taken an oath … as an officer of the United States … to support the Constitution, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.…”
This provision, likewise, does not state that the disqualification envisioned can only be levied against an individual removed from office through impeachment.
The Republican assertion that the current proceeding against Trump is unconstitutional is plainly wrong. It is also lacking in common sense. Their claim would allow a president who incites insurrection against the United States to escape any consequences, so long as his crime occurs when only a few days remain in his term. Should Trump — who orchestrated a riot calculated to reverse the fair and decisive vote of the American people, left five dead, and the Capitol desecrated — go completely unpunished? Can our country survive Donald Trump’s emboldening of the racist, violent, right wing hate groups who revere him, and his saturation of the media with conspiracy claims, venomous propaganda, andoutright lies as he prepares to run again for president in 2024 ?
Will the Republicans, for once, stop clinging to Trump’s dirty coattails, put the interests of their country above their own re-election, and prevent the worst President in U.S. history from further damaging our sacred democracy?
In this case, re-paying Rand Paul’s duplicity, and doing the honorable thing, pursuant to the Constitution, can be accomplished with a single stroke — a vote to convict Donald Trump.
David Engle is a resident of Shelburne.