OPINION:
The Senate meets Tuesday to try Mr. Trump an unprecedented second time following impeachment Jan. 13 in the House of Representatives. “Incitement of insurrection” is the charge that Democrats bring this time, in hopes of rendering the former president ineligible for future public office.
The proceedings stem from the fateful Jan. 6 “Women for America First” rally on the Washington Ellipse. Organized to lend support for the president’s complaints of fraud in the November election that put Democrat Joe Biden in the White House, the gathering was unremarkable until a portion of marchers forced their way into the U.S. Capitol, leading to five deaths.
The violence was universally condemned. This publication immediately chided Mr. Trump — not for triggering violence — but for browbeating Vice President Mike Pence to attempt the impossible: singlehandedly preventing the Electoral College from formalizing Joe Biden’s Election Day victory. Mr. Pence refused.
What words did Mr. Trump pronounce that rekindled the wrath of the Democratic establishment? “I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”
A call for violence? Quite the opposite, but no matter. Democrats are unafraid to bend, fold, spindle or mutilate the U.S. Constitution to suit their aims. The document states, “The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”
Arguments cannot remedy the illogic of expelling from office an individual who no longer holds one. It should be sufficient, though, simply to point out that Democrats’ hopes of recruiting at least 17 Republicans necessary to achieve a required two-thirds majority for conviction is a rather slender reed.
In the former president’s defense, his lawyers state the obvious: “Since the 45th President is no longer ’President,’ the clause ’shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for ’ is impossible for the Senate to accomplish, and thus the current proceeding before the Senate is void .”
They further submit that Mr. Trump’s right to free speech, solidly grounded in the First Amendment, can never be overshadowed by the rickety tower of innuendo his adversaries have pieced together to suggest his words mean their opposite.
Reason says the left-wing mob in Congress who claim President Trump incited a right-wing insurrection must fail in their attempt to banish him forever.
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