„I don’t have very many questions.“ Who does?
Pass the popcorn, order the pizzas, and clear the Zoom rooms! The Senate today launches its second trial of Donald Trump in as many years, and this will set a new precedent on attempting to convict a president that has already left office. In fact, the precedent is weighty enough that the first order of business after setting the rules for the trial is to determine whether there should even be a trial: At 1:00 p.m. ET, the Senate will convene to pass an organizing resolution dictating the structure of the trial. Four hours of argument over the constitutionality of proceedings against a former president by the House managers and Trump’s lawyers will follow. While 45 Republicans voted last month in favor of a measure that argued the proceedings were unconstitutional, some of those senators said they simply wanted a debate on the issue so their vote may not indicate how they view the issue. After the arguments on constitutionality, the Senate will vote on whether to proceed — a measure that only needs a simple majority and is expected to pass. That will set the stage for the start Wednesday of consideration of the article of the “incitement of insurrection” article of impeachment. That does appear to be a foregone conclusion. The constitutional objections will be noted and the adherents counted, but Rand Paul’s point-of-order motion a week ago made two things very clear. A majority of the Senate wants the trial to proceed, and enough Republicans oppose it to make the trial futile — at least in terms of pursuing a conviction and disqualification. Instead, this will give Senate Democrats a final opportunity to bury Trump politically. Given the specifics of this article of impeachment, they won’t need as long as the previous trial, in part because they don’t foresee the need for witnesses and evidentiary support: Each side will have 16 hours to make their presentations — a shorter amount of time than the 24 hours allotted for Trump’s first trial and then-President Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial.
