Would you do us the honor of a fresh thread?
I'd be happy to start an "Impeachment Inquiry" thread, and, further, I can envision a future "Articles of Impeachment" thread, and hopefully, an "Impeachment Trial" thread, but, I'd feel like I was stepping on
@colton's toes to start another impeachment segment now, when here his impeachment thread is peaking on his birthday!(Happy Birthday,
@colton!)I agree we likely will need to approach the subject in manageable segments, though, and Pelosi's announcement does represent the launching of that next segment in this historic story.
Agreed. But there's no such thing as impeachment with guaranteed removal. The process is what is mandated by the constitution.
Not sure if what follows is what we can expect, but it had not even occurred to me before reading this Politifact primer on impeachment.
https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2019/sep/24/How-would-impeachment-inquiry-against/
Could the Senate refuse to hold a trial?
The short answer is yes, the Senate — currently led by Trump’s fellow Republicans — could probably refuse to try an impeachment. While the Constitution stipulates that the Senate has the "sole power to try," it does not force the chamber to do so.
"I would interpret this as authority to try, but not a requirement to try," said Steven Smith, a political science professor at Washington University in St. Louis.
Experts agreed that the spirit of the Senate
rules on impeachment, written in 1986, express an expectation that the Senate would hold a trial if the House approved impeachment articles.
But both Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Trump have a track record of upending political expectations, experts noted.
Burdett A. Loomis, a political scientist at the University of Kansas, cited the example of McConnell’s norm-defying refusal to hold a hearing on President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Merrick Garland, with backing from then-candidate Trump.
"I think McConnell would slow-walk it to a stop, maybe letting the voters decide, even if that was risky," Loomis said.