Democrats have a back-up plan in case the Senate doesn't convict Trump on impeachment

[DonViejo]

BY MICHAEL WILNER
FEBRUARY 08, 2021 02:38 PM, UPDATED 9 HOURS 43 MINUTES AGO

WASHINGTON

House and Senate Democrats may push ahead this week with a censure resolution to bar former President Donald Trump from holding future office over his role in the U.S. Capitol riot, anticipating acquittal in the Senate impeachment trial, several sources familiar with the matter told McClatchy.

The effort to draft the resolution that would invoke a provision of the 14th Amendment began quietly in January and gained momentum over the weekend, as Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia and Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine gauge whether the measure could attract bipartisan support.

The reception has been lukewarm so far from Democrats, who would prefer to see the former president convicted in the impeachment trial, and from Republicans, who fear political consequences in barring Trump from office.

But a group of Democratic lawmakers may still proceed with the censure resolution this week, hoping to build public support and political momentum for the alternative as the trial proceeds, two sources said.

more
https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/white-house/article249077830.html

[Miguelito Loveless]

1. How about indicting him for all the crimes he committed

while in office that they told us he couldn't be indicted for because he was in office?

Just the crimes he committed in the first three months in office should keep a grand jury busy for a year issuing indictments.

[malaise]

5. That's what we all want but it wouldn't be Congress's responsibility

I'd like the DOJ to deal with him or state legal folks

[StarfishSaver]

2. I can't imagine what they're thinking. There's no way this will work to disqualify him

It violates about 72 parts of the Constitution.

Well, not 72 - but it definitely violates the 14th Amendment Due Process requirement and separation of powers and it's an unconstitutional bill of attainder.

Congress cannot get around the impeachment clause, which requires a 2/3 Senate vote for conviction before disqualification can be imposed, by unilaterally declaring a president guilty of insurrection with a simple majority vote to censure without any judicial determination.

[TwilightZone]

6. That's partly (mostly, perhaps) why most Democrats aren't on board with it.

The article doesn't even bother mentioning that Kaine has essentially dropped the censure measure ("it's out on the table" is meaningless in context) until the very end where it quotes him clearly saying the support isn't there.

[NYC Liberal]

9. I agree. You'd need an actual criminal conviction

to even make a case for this.

[North Shore Chicago]

3. If doll-hands

skates on any of this, I will no longer believe in Jurisprudence. It appears we have evidence against him in spades. So, I will be watching, hoping enough good Senators will do the right thing.

[Wawannabe]

7. He's gonna skate!

I am more than sore about it but the fact is the repubs are NOT gonna convict. Fuck!

[North Shore Chicago]

8. Here's hoping the better angels prevail.

[uponit7771]

4. K&R, that still would fracture the kGOP and no senator would go for that. Without Putin's Whore on

... the scene or even on the ticket Trump's Terrorist are staying home