Monday, February 3, 2020

Gloat Rack

   Look for the Senate to formally censure the president for what members have called "inappropriate behavior" as described in the articles of impeachment.
   Senators will likely do this rather than find him guilty of the charges, which would remove him from office and forbid him from holding any other federal office in the future.
   Republicans have said he probably did do the things he was accused of doing, but they claimed the actions and comments did not rise to the level of "high crimes and misdemeanors" that impeachment calls for.
   Therefore, Republican thinking goes, convicting him of the charges would be too extreme. Not only that, but observers suggest that doing so would be a concession to Democrats that they were right, and politically that would be too much for them to deal with in this election year.
   This will depend partly on what, if anything, the president says about the impeachment trial during his State of the Union address to the nation Tuesday evening. A Senate vote on whether to convict him of the impeachment charges is scheduled for Wednesday.
   So if he gloats of his victory the day before it happens, that may be the final straw for reluctant Republicans to bear. And rather than convict him and oust him from office -- a first for the nation -- Senators would censure him as a way to avoid the issue and "let the voters decide" on Election Day in November whether he stays in office.

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