Impeaching Trump gets more divisive by the minute: Goodwin
Impeaching Trump gets more divisive by the minute: Goodwin (nypost.com)
Apparently believing his first week in the White House has
been flawless and the public will be extra patient with him, Joe Biden did a very foolish thing. He decided to ride the tiger of impeachment.
“I think it has to happen,”
the president said in a brief TV interview about his party’s bid to try Donald Trump. Biden conceded a Senate trial would slow confirmation of his nominees and passage of legislation tied to pandemic relief, but insisted there would be “a worse effect if it didn’t happen.”
He doesn’t say what could be worse, but let’s take a guess: Democrats obsessed with getting
revenge on Trump would get furious at Biden. That’s the only possible answer because only Democrats would revolt if Trump were not put in the dock.
Chalk it up to another example of Biden having trouble with the transition from partisan candidate to president. You might remember his promise to work for all Americans, no matter how they voted, but he’s already forgotten it. His dozens of
executive orders and pronouncements show he’s working only for left-wing Dems.
When it comes to impeachment, he’s also late to the game. Biden’s first clear support for Nancy Pelosi’s Folly comes just as the winds are shifting
in Trump’s favor and the chance of conviction is rapidly approaching zero.
The change reflects the fact that the Dems’ theater of the absurd is becoming more messy and less logical with each passing day. Tempers over the
Jan.6 Capitol riot are cooling and reality is setting in about the pitfalls
of a trial and the need to get on with governing during the twin public-health and economic crises.
Start with the concept of the trial itself. A CNN caption on a photo of House managers walking the single article to the Senate said it would start “only the fourth impeachment trial of a president in US history.”
Except Trump is
no longer president. An honest caption would have noted this would be the first impeachment trial of a former president — and thus a private citizen — by the Senate. Doesn’t quite have the same zing, but happens to be true.
The justification for a trial is even shakier with the decision by
Chief Justice John Roberts to be a no-show. Roberts has bailed out, reportedly refusing to preside because Trump is no longer president.
The Constitution says the court’s chief justice “shall preside” when the president is the accused, but Roberts either decided he doesn’t have to, or shouldn’t, because
Trump is out of office. ......
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