Wednesday, January 13, 2021

Delaying Trump's impeachment trial puts more pressure on Ron Johnson

Having the Senate delay - but hold - a Trump impeachment trial following Wednesday's House impeachment action will be a good thing, for four reasons:

* Most importantly, a delay will allow Biden to focus on his forward-looking agenda and implement better responses to the pandemic which Trump obstructed, then botched - even deliberately:

*It will allow more evidence about the attack on the Capitol by Trump devotees to surface that could strengthen the case for a Senate conviction.

Rumors about some officials' collusion with rioters need time to be checked out before Trump's trial, as the facts  could be pivotal:

* A delay allows more time for pressure to build against Trump enablers who'd surely prefer the entire matter evaporate so they wouldn't have to sit in judgement on Trump again.

That would no doubt include Big Lie spreader Ron Johnson; The Lincoln Project and others have already begun that work, and just today Wisconsin Democrats announced an anti-Johnson ad buy.

Think he wants to take another vote on convicting Trump as he considers whether to run again for a third term he'd earlier ruled out?

* And a trial, conviction or not, would absolutely buttress the deterrent effect of the entire impeachment process. Leaving the White House shouldn't come with a Get Out Of Jail Free Card.

Convicting Trump would complete and win the case against him, but would require a two-thirds vote of the Senators present as jurors - a very high bar that would require many Republican Senators' votes.

Additional majority-only votes could then ban Trump from holding federal office and perhaps cost him some benefits and privileges normally extended to former Presidents, but it's a complicated matter that has never before been applied to a former President.

But as Tump would say, 'let's see what happens.'


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