Predictably, Trump used his acquittal in the Senate to spike the football.
Um, Donnie? A bipartisan majority of Senators went on record as stating that your behavior on January 6 amounted to high crimes and misdemeanors. This can only be described as a stinging bipartisan rebuke of a president who is, by any real-world standard, a criminal.
Besides, Trump apparently doesn’t know that there is still another way to permanently remove him from our politics. Namely, Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which which stipulates that anyone who engages in “insurrection or rebellion” against the United States after having previously sworn to uphold the Constitution is barred from ever holding office again.
Apparently, per Reuters, it would take a simple majority of both houses finding that Trump engaged in an act of insurrection. To my mind, though, you’re going to need much more than a simple majority for a vote of this magnitude to be considered legitimate—and that would be the case even if we weren’t dealing with a former president with a near cult-like following.
Plus, we’ve got a more pressing matter at hand—getting a handle on this virus. Ironically, Trump’s mishandling of perhaps the worst peacetime crisis in our nation’s history may delay his reckoning. If not for that, I would be pressing for Pelosi, Nadler and Raskin to at least start the groundwork for a 14th Amendment solution.
But we can make some lemonade out of this economy-size lemon. By springtime, when flu season ends, the hospitals aren’t as stressed and more people are vaccinated, it’s a near-mathematical certainty that more evidence will come to light about Trump’s behavior. Remember, we already know that Trump was spewing his groundless claims about election fraud when he knew he’d lost. He knew as early as November 7-8 that he was shooting his last legal bolt to overturn Biden’s lead, and he knew as early as November 12 that his legal options had run out. In other words, the insurrection was already underway before January 6. The more evidence that comes out, the more that we can ensure that when we make a move to use the 14th on Trump, the deplorables won’t be able to say a damn thing.
By my count, at least eight Senators (Portman, Thune, Capito, McConnell, Cornyn, Rounds, Daines, Moran) sounded like they were at least open to voting to convict Trump had he still been in office. An additional Senator, Tillis (my Senator) conceded that Congress does have the power to disqualify Trump under the 14th Amendment. There looks like there is at least some support among House Republicans for a 14th Amendment solution; Tom Reed of NY-23 actually called for it in an NYT op-ed later this month.
There is no dispute—Trump has forfeited his right to take part in our politics. We just need to play it right before we formalize this fact with a 14th Amendment solution.