Acquital?

 The Way We Were

Memories may be beautiful and yet

Much too painful to remember

We simply choose to forget

 

Something seems to be wrong with Sen. Mitch McConnell’s memory.

 
Sen. Mitch McConnell seems to be having a senior moment when it comes to  his vote for the acquittal of Donald Trump at the recent impeachment.  His position is that Donald Trump is responsible and he would have found him guilty but since he is a private citizen unfortunately as a Senator he  did not have constitutional jurisdiction.
 
I guess he forgot that the Senate voted 56 to 44 on Tuesday February 9^th, 2021 that this impeachment WAS constitutional.  I guess that he forgot that the crimes were committed when Donald Trump was the President.  And that the Articles of Impeachment were voted by the House on January 13^th, 2021 when Donald Trump was still the President but the Senate was in recess.  The former Majority Leader of the Senate at that time, who coincidentally had the same name as Sen. McConnell ;), decided not to return the Senate from recess so that the impeachment trial could begin before Donald Trump became a private citizen.  The vote on February 9^th that impeachment was constitutional acknowledged that Donald Trump was a private citizen, but that he was also a former federal official and the Senate had jurisdiction over impeachment of those private citizens who were also former federal officials.  If it was clear that impeachment also covered former federal officials perhaps the House could have had the time that the defense demanded to fully document, research and describe the crimes in the Articles of Impeachment.

It is sad that Sen. McConnell’s memory is failing.  I understand.  That happens when we get older, and it is happening to me.  Perhaps a Constitutional Amendment is in order to clear up this issue for him so that he can then vote his …cough, cough, cough... conscience. The Republican Senators are to be thanked for pointing out during questioning that that impeachment of former officials could be weaponized to again try to “lock her up”.  Perhaps the Articles of Impeachment of FORMER officials should require a supermajority of the House.  Impeachments should be limited to high crimes and misdemeanors committed while a federal official.  George Washington was a legal slave owner, and Bill of Attainders are already prohibited by the constitution. The minimum mandatory sentence for impeachment is  removal from office and the discretionary sentence is disqualification from holding future federal office.  Since holding a future office does require one to be alive, I think that George Washington is safe from Impeachment. But if Sen. McConnell and others are unsure,  perhaps that can be made clear in a constitutional amendment. 

And considering that the former President’s defense team seem confused about impeachment being a criminal trial covered by criminal law, which clearly it was not, perhaps the amendment can spell out that an impeachment trial is not a criminal trial and which rules apply.  Mr. van der Veen clearly was confused, which surprises me since he is an ambulance chaser who has primarily tried civil cases that have different rules than criminal cases, but maybe they do things different in “Philly”delphia.