#impeachment trial

[scentofdriedflowers]

like....

the hypocrisy and the nerve mcconnell had to say those words

[candicoated]

So I am glad to know I can incite a riot as long as I have full party support. We saw it coming. That's the American justice system for ya.

And they had the audacity to compare the insurrection to BLM. Like huh?

[aveline-shepard]

hey does anyone remember when the impeachment trial was supposed to be THE biggest thing headed into the 2020 election because I forgot that it, too, happened THIS YEAR

This year’s been a hell of a decade and we’re only halfway through

[deadpresidents]

So given that impeachment trials can take place after the impeached individual left office, why did the impeachment process for Nixon stop when he resigned?

That was because Nixon's resignation was a consequence of his actions. In the case of Trump's impeachments, the Senate trials didn't reach the 2/3rds of guilty votes necessary to convict him and remove him from office (or, in the case of the second impeachment trial, bar him from seeking public office in the future). So, in Trump's case, there were really no consequences.

Nixon's resigned because the writing was on the wall. He had lost the support of his own party in Congress (back when Congress remember that it was an equal branch of the government), and it was clear that he would be impeached, convicted, and removed from office. Being forced out of office by resignation instead of impeachment and removal didn't change the fact that Nixon did face some consequences for his actions. Nixon still had to give up the power of the Presidency as a result of Watergate.

A similar thing had happened a year earlier with Nixon's then-Vice President Spiro Agnew. Agnew was facing several potential criminal charges due to an investigation of corruption that dated back to his earlier political career in Maryland and continued through his Vice Presidency. He could have faced a number of felony charges, including bribery and tax fraud, but cut a deal with prosecutors and entered a plea bargain which resulted in just one charge of tax evasion that he pled no contest to. Agnew was forced to pay a fine and got probation, but he also had to resign as Vice President. Because there was a consequence to his actions and he was forced to leave office, there was no need for impeachment proceedings against Agnew.

[dragoni]

“To anyone saying Trump didn’t participate in the insurrection, remind them that Bin Laden didn’t fly the planes”

Leaving this here for Republicans —  and their families!

[qualidude]

I fucking cannot believe that I just heard an educated person say the largest political threat to this country is....cancel culture

[swaldblues]

Another CNN caption gem.

[omuii]

watching the senate impeachment vote like