Republican Senator Mitt Romney had forewarned prophetically during the presidential campaign in March 2016 that “Trump was a fraud who had neither the temperament nor the judgment to be president”. Other older Republican Senators like John McCain and Lindsey Graham too had warned against Trump. During the campaign, Trump himself had threatened, “If I become President, the media is going to have a problem”, and described the media as “among the most dishonest groups of people I have ever met”. In a February 2017 tweet, Trump, then the President, had called the media the ‘enemy of the American people’, a term, as critics noted, used by Stalin and Mao. It is thus intriguing that despite the complex electoral procedure established by the makers of the US Constitution to ensure that the office of the president does not “fall to men with low intrigue and the little arts of popularity”, Donald John Trump was elected the 45th president.
The unprecedented assault on Capitol Hill, the seat of US Congress, by the rioting supporters of Trump on 6th January, 2020, when the Congress was in a joint session to take count of the votes of the Electoral College, has proven to be the proverbial last nail on his presidency. The premeditated violence was so egregious that even Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell appealed to the lawmakers to finish the count in the wake of “the failed insurrection”. The votes were counted and the results declared by Mike Pence, the Vice President, a Republican, and the ex-officio president of the Senate. Joe Biden was declared elected, despite Trump hectoring, “Do it Mike, this is time for extreme courage.”
Lawmakers, mostly Democrats and some Republicans, have accused Trump of “fomenting the violence with his relentless falsehoods” and want him impeached or removed. Albeit a few days are left for the inaugural ceremony of the new presidency, yet Democrats and a considerable number of Republican leaders and officials want that Donald Trump should be removed from office before January 20. Some lawmakers want that the 25th Amendment be invoked, and others desire that the President should be impeached. In fact, an article of impeachment signed by 218 Democrats is under consideration in the House of Representatives (the House), charging Trump with abuse of power to the effect that he “willfully made statements that encouraged, and foreseeably resulted in imminent lawless action at the Capitol”. The impeachment draft mentions Trump’s prior and consistent efforts to ‘subvert and obstruct’ the results of the election and references his call to the Georgia Secretary of State asking him to find more votes after losing the state to Biden. The draft goes on to say that ‘Trump has falsely claimed there was widespread fraud in the election, and the baseless claims have been repeatedly echoed by congressional Republicans […] President Trump gravely endangered the security of the United States and its institutions of government. He threatened the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful transition of power and imperiled a coordinate branch of government. He thereby betrayed his trust as president, to the manifest injury of the people of the United States.”
The Democrats have a clear majority in the House but the Republicans command a majority in the Senate. Moreover, the timing of a trial in the Senate is uncertain as the Senate is not set to meet until 20th January, which is the Inauguration Day of the new presidency. Two-thirds of the Senate is needed to convict, and this seems unlikely. Though many Republican senators have disparaged Trump’s actions, several Republicans believe that impeachment would divide the country further, just ahead of Biden’s inauguration.
Impeachment is not something which is new to Donald Trump. He was impeached by the House on December 18, 2019 on two counts: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Of course, he was acquitted by the Republicans, the Grand Old Party (GOP)-controlled Senate on February 5, 2020. Yet, Trump faces the ignominy of a second unprecedented impeachment at the fag end of his presidency. Normally, there is an impeachment investigation by the House and the evidence is sent to the House Judiciary Committee, which holds hearings, draft articles and sends them to the full House. The impeachment of Trump by the House in 2019 took three months. This time, with so few days left—and a feeling among Democrats that there is little need to investigate what happened, since most members of Congress were in the Capitol when the mob broke in—Speaker Pelosi may hold a floor vote with no hearings or reference to the House Judiciary Committee. Once the House votes to impeach, the article and evidence would be sent to the Senate, where a trial is held and there are final votes to convict or acquit. It would outlast the tenure of Trump. Recourse can also be the 25th Constitution Amendment which allows for the Vice President and a majority of the Cabinet to declare a President unfit for office, and the Vice President then becomes acting President. Despite widespread dismay, disbelief and discontent with Trump’s actions, there appears little chance, as Pence has ruled out recourse to the 25th Amendment. Many Republicans, even those who have criticized Trump, say impeachment would be unhelpful, as it would do “more harm than good.” But Democrats and some Republicans also feel that “it must be made clear that no president, now or in the future, can lead an insurrection against the US government.”
No American president has ever been removed from office by the impeachment process, and no president has been impeached by the House more than once. Impeachment proceedings were launched against four Presidents, namely, Andrew Johnson (1868), Richard Nixon (1974), Bill Clinton (1998) and Donald Trump (2019) but the motions failed. Nixon resigned before the proceedings were launched. Legal experts are divided into three camps over the desirability or otherwise of impeachments proceedings against Trump. According to one view, a president can be impeached only while in office. Another opinion is that, if the House votes to impeach while the president is in office, the Senate can proceed to a trial even after the president has left office. And, a third view is that the entire process can begin even after the president is out of office. No president has ever been impeached after leaving office. But as the House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, said, “Democrats will preserve every option” to force Trump from office, either through the 25th Amendment or impeachment. The impeachment motion is before the House, where it will be carried, but there is a rub in the Senate as the members of the GOP may stall the impeachment. In any case, whether Trump is impeached or not, the infamy of a second impeachment is a fitting denouement of his presidency.
The author is former Additional Secretary, Lok Sabha, and a scholar of comparative governments and politics. The views expressed are personal.