Impeachment 2.0 has kicked off – and it’s on track to be as “successful” as impeachment 1.0.
Democrats easily have enough votes in the House of Representatives to impeach President Donald Trump, but a path to a two-thirds majority in the Senate is unclear. A vote to convict is likely from the usual suspects (Mitt Romney, Lisa Murkowski, and Susan Collins), but their supposedly “principled stands” won’t be enough. A total of seventeen GOP Senators would have to join Democrats to convict Trump (after Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock take office).
And Democrat Senator Joe Manchin, who said he will vote to convict, doesn’t see impeachment as a pressing issue for that reason.
According to Just the News:
Manchin said during an interview on Fox News’ Special Report with Brett Baier that he does not think that there will be sufficient support in the Senate to convict President Trump.
“I don’t see that and I think the House should know that also. We’ve been trying to send that message over. They know the votes aren’t there,” Manchin said. “I think this is so ill-advised, for Joe Biden to be coming in, trying to heal the country, trying to be the president of all the people when we’re going to be so divided and fighting again,” he said.
“Let the judicial system do its job, Brett,” Manchin said. “Let the investigations go on, let the evidence come forth…There’s no rush to do this impeachment now. We can do it later if they think it’s necessary,” he said.
As I noted yesterday, the timeline on a Senate trial will likely be delayed for at the least the next couple of months following a House vote. House Majority Whip James Clyburn laid out a timeline for impeachment on Sunday – and said that Democrats may wait until after Biden’s first 100 days in office to send any impeachment articles to the Senate.
Of course, that’s likely because Democrats know that impeachment will be a tremendous waste of time (again) and don’t want it to interfere with Biden’s crucial first 100 days. It’s a shame they didn’t employ the same logic during the early stages of a pandemic.
