A justifiably angry House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ruled out censure after Trump acquittal:
After the Senate voted to acquit former President Trump, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Saturday ruled out censuring the former president — an idea that several Republicans had floated in recent days.
“Censure is a slap in the face of the Constitution. It lets everybody off the hook, it lets everybody off the hook,” Pelosi told reporters following the Senate impeachment trial at the Capitol.
“Oh, these cowardly senators who couldn’t face up to what the president did and what was at stake for our country are now going to have a chance to give a little slap on the wrist?” Pelosi said while slapping her own wrist.
“We censure people for using stationery for the wrong purpose,” said Pelosi, referring to an episode that led Democrats to censure former Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) in 2010.
“We don’t censure people for inciting insurrection that kills people in the Capitol.”
Nancy is pissed!
When she has a chance to calm down, she should reconsider what has actually been proposed. The bipartisan censure resolution under consideration carries a lot more weight constitutionally and morally than the example she cited.
The option to censure Trump with a simple majority vote in the Senate and the House would be based on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, and Donald Trump would never be allowed to hold federal office again for having engaged in sedition and insurrection against the United States.
It’s now time to go to “Plan B” as the only available option after the villainy of Mitch McConnell and 42 other craven coward Republican senators who failed to do their constitutional duty to defend the country and the Constitution.
I have previously explained the bipartisan censure resolution under consideration, Time To Reconsider A Censure Resolution Pursuant To Section 3 Of The 14th Amendment.
I strongly urge House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to reconsider her position, obviously stated in the heat of the moment. Schedule this bipartisan censure resolution for a vote this week. It will pass with bipartisan support. Force Sen. Mitch McConnell to vote for it after his speech condemning Trump yesterday.
It would take away from Donald Trump the one cudgel he has over the Republican Party, the threat of a “comeback tour” campaign in 2024. Render him “Mr. Irrelevant.”
Tom Coleman, a former Republican congressman from Missouri, and John C. Danforth, a former Republican senator from Missouri, write at the Washington Post, “Congress must invoke the 14th Amendment to stop Trump from running again”, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/02/16/14th-amendment-disqualify-trump-congress/
The Senate impeachment trial has provided further proof of what can no longer be denied: Former president Donald Trump poses an existential threat to American democracy. The harrowing evidence shows that Trump incited and supported the violent insurrection at the Capitol that aimed to prevent the peaceful transition of power and resulted, tragically, in multiple deaths. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) confirmed these facts in his statement following the Senate vote.
Such anti-democratic conduct should disqualify Trump from ever holding future public office. While conviction by the Senate would have been the best and quickest route to disqualification, because that failed, Congress can — and must — pursue an alternative path to protecting our republic from a future Trump presidency: Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.
There can be no serious dispute that Trump engaged in insurrection within the meaning of Section 3. While Trump did not himself storm the Capitol on Jan. 6, his actions leading up to and during that day’s events were central to the insurrection.
Because the Senate failed to convict Trump in the impeachment trial, Congress should immediately take action to ensure that Trump is held accountable under Section 3 — an action endorsed by legal scholars. Ideally, Congress would enact legislation that both establishes judicial procedures to enforce Section 3 and expresses Congress’s conclusion — based on factual findings — that Trump engaged in insurrection within the meaning of Section 3. But even a resolution that only does the latter would cast serious doubt on Trump’s eligibility to run for president in 2024.
[I]n the face of this modern threat to our republic, Congress must revive Section 3 so it can serve its noble purpose of protecting American democracy against those who would do it harm.
The Washington Post’s Colbert King says that the “lock him up” speech by “McConnell has basically written the Senate’s censure resolution already”, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/02/15/mcconnell-has-basically-written-senates-censure-resolution-already/
“I listened carefully, as I’m sure you did, too. McConnell’s case against Trump was a case for a guilty verdict. He wimped out. But his words did not disappear.
In fact, they would fit perfectly into a censure resolution, one that I’m sure McConnell or one of his GOP colleagues will — or should — introduce when they return to town from their recess.
Without further ado, here is McConnell’s denunciation captured in what a Senate censure resolution might look like.”
Colbert’s colleague at The Post, Jennifer Rubin writes, “Could Trump be disqualified through other means?”, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/02/15/could-trump-be-disqualified-through-other-means/
“Having witnessed the unflinching partisanship of Senate Republicans, the American people have two avenues left to hold the disgraced former president accountable for inciting insurrection.
Both Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who whiffed when presented with the chance to disqualify former president Donald Trump, recognized that criminal prosecution is still in the cards.
Beyond a criminal prosecution (and an investigation in Georgia is already underway into Trump’s alleged effort to intimidate the Georgia secretary of state), there is another means of holding him accountable. Democrats could bring a bill or a concurrent resolution (which cannot be filibustered) to affirm that, according to the 14th Amendment, Section 3, the former president is ineligible to hold office. That provision states that someone who engaged in “insurrection” or had “given aid or comfort” to those who did cannot hold federal office. That Civil War provision prohibited Confederate officials and military officers from serving in the Union unless granted a reprieve by a two-thirds vote.
McConnell has already confirmed on the floor that the former president was responsible for a violent insurrection. While there is scant precedent, it is almost certainly true that the presidency from which he would be disqualified is covered by “any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State” in Section 3. (It would be bizarre if one could be excluded from running for the House but not the presidency.)
Congress could go even further and, as one lawyer exploring this avenue told me, “expressly authorize the Attorney General to bring an action to enforce Section Three against President Trump before the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals (or a three-judge federal district court panel) and allow for immediate and expedited appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.”
[P]utting Congress on record would give weight to such a claim in the future and, as noted, could give the Justice Department a cause of action to enforce Section 3. Congress could make findings of fact, affirm his conduct falls within Section 3 and affirm he is disqualified from holding office.
A concurrent resolution would not be subject to filibuster, so the 57 senators who voted to convict Democrats would have to decide the legal and political value of such a move.
What is justifiable about her being pissed? Get over it “Hag”
How is that misogyny working for you, Adrian Gall?
Wow, i even had to look it up, and realized why i wasnt familiar with it. Doesnt apply to me…lol.
SO..post your exotic nomenclature and rhetorical obfuscation elsewhere…Honey
Adrian Gall needs to show some respect, on this day of all days, it’s the anniversary of the Bowling Green Massacre and people need to heal.
See Kimberly Wehle, professor of law at the University of Baltimore School of Law, at POLITICO magazine, “Congress Still Has One More Way to Ban Trump from Future Office”, https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/02/05/congress-still-has-one-more-way-to-ban-trump-from-future-office-466220