Post
by Tero » Sun Jun 02, 2019 11:12 am
On another forum:
Muualla:
A said:
McConnell will neuter any hearings.
B said: That is also not how it works. McConnell isn't the arbiter.
The House of Representatives, which does not include Mitch McConnell, must pass articles of impeachment. Normally, this would be preceded by a vote in the House Judiciary Committee, but that's part of House rules. In the case of Richard Nixon, the Judiciary Committee had been meeting for months investigating allegations against Nixon, and then debating the actual impeachment articles. Some impeachment articles were passed by the committee, which prompted Nixon's resignation.
In the case of Bill Clinton, the House Judiciary Committee conducted no investigations, and debated the articles of impeachment for a total of four hours before voting on, and passing, those articles. Those then went to the House floor 8 days later, where they passed.
At that point, it moves to a trial in the Senate. The Constitution doesn't specify much about the trial phase, except that the Chief Justice presides over the proceedings. John Roberts is the closest thing to an arbiter in the process. Other than that, the Senate rules dictate exactly how the trial goes, but it's the Chief Justice, not Mitch McConnell or the President of the Senate, which is Mike Pence, that directs the proceedings. In other words, Mitch really can't do much about it. He could, in theory, recommend a rules change to conduct the trial differently, and if the GOP senators went along with the rules change, then the Chief Justice would preside over the trial, conducted by whatever the Senate rules were in effect at the commencement of the trial.
The other arbiters, in some sense, are the senators, because they eventually take a vote. Each senator, including Mitch, gets one vote. 2/3 are required to pass.
Suppose a president did something truly horrendous, which darned near everyone agreed would justify throwing him out. The House could pass articles in an afternoon. The Senate could vote on a rule change that says the trial would consist of just a vote. If the rules change passed, they could then immediately hold a removal vote. If it passed, the president wouldn't be the president any more as soon as they declared that a 2/3 majority voted him out. The whole thing could be done in an afternoon.
Needless to say, that isn't going to happen, but the point is that the actual process may involve months of hearings, but it doesn't have to. What it really requires is a majority of the House, then 2/3 of the Senate. Everything else is dictated by rules of the House and Senate, which can be changed if they think it beneficial.
Thanks
