Despite Senator Rand Paul’s point of order arguing that the impeachment trial is unconstitutional, the Senate voted 55-45 not to dismiss the impeachment trial, with five Republicans joining the Democrats. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Ben Sasse of Nebraska, Mitt Romney of Utah, and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania.
Noticeably absent from the list is Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, whom the New York Times claimed that he “believes President Trump committed impeachable offenses and that he is pleased that Democrats are moving to impeach him, believing that it will make it easier to purge him from the party.”
While it appears the second sham impeachment will proceed, Senator Paul said he believed his resolution would prove that conviction in the Senate would have no chance.
“I think there will be enough support on it to show there’s no chance they can impeach the president,” Paul said. “If 34 people support my resolution that this is an unconstitutional proceeding it shows they don’t have the votes and we’re basically wasting our time.”
Since 45 Senators, including Mitch McConnell, voted against proceeding with the impeachment, it’s safe to say that conviction is doomed to fail, as it is extremely unlikely that anyone who believes the impeachment is unconstitutional would vote to convict. Conviction requires 67 votes, and at least 45 Republicans will vote to acquit. While it’s possible someone could vote against proceeding with impeachment but still vote to convict, if you assume that all five of the Republicans who vote with Democrats would vote to convict, that still means 12 more Republicans who believe that this trial is unconstitutional would have to vote convict anyway. In other words, an acquittal is inevitable.
Not only is this impeachment trial is a fool’s errand, and will only sideline Joe Biden’s legislative agenda and nominations. The rules of the Senate require that all other business be tabled during an impeachment trial. Chuck Schumer believes that the Senate can do it all, but as Senator Cornyn pointed out, it takes unanimous consent to do other business while impeachment is underway. So all it takes is one Republican to object to moving forward with a nomination or legislation to put Biden’s agenda to a halt.
Are Democrats really willing to put nominations and COVID relief on hold for a futile Senate trial?
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Matt Margolis is the author of Airborne: How The Liberal Media Weaponized The Coronavirus Against Donald Trump, and the bestselling book The Worst President in History: The Legacy of Barack Obama. You can follow Matt on Twitter, Facebook, Parler, Gab, MeWe, Heroes, Rumble, and CloutHub.