The Impeachment Clause in the U.S. Constitution was written by the Founders to create an emergency “Get Rid of a Rogue President (or other high Federal official) Free Card,” to be used in a bid-partisan process featuring due process, hearings and a trial. The Democrats cynically used the process as part of their undemocratic and ruinous campaign to make it impossible for the elected President to govern, because he had committed the unforgivable sin of blocking Hillary Clinton’s rose-strewn path to the White House. Like the fake, Hillary and Obama engineered Russian collusion hoax (and in Trump’s second term, the J-6 kangaroo hearings in the House, both of Trump’s impeachments were contrived, politically motivated, and Constitutionally indefensible. The damage was done, the precedent set. Impeachment is now toothless; the Founders’ metaphorical safety valve is done. What once was framed as cooperative, bi-partisan inquiry to be triggered by genuine abuses of power is now just another toothless and corrupt tool of political warfare. Good job, everybody!
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), on the way out after losing the primary for his seat earlier this year, filed eight articles of impeachment against Secretary of War Pete Hegseth this week.
No civilian Secretary of War nor predecessor officials ever were impeached (let alone removed by the Senate) on this basis.
“Exhausted other legislative options” meaning, of course, that he can’t get a majority of both Houses to agree with him on those options.
Massie will not be around in Congress after the midterms in November. Assuming that the Democrats win, wouldn’t you think it is highly likely that impeachments will resume again?
Of course they will. Time-wasting, grandstanding, illegitimate impeachments that can’t possibly succeed because the 2/3 requirement for conviction in the Senate makesa bi-partisan impeachment mandatory, and that can’t come from a partisan hist job like what Democrats have planned.
The Democrats probably cannot help themselves. Massie, as a GOP Congressman puts himself in Liz Cheney territory with this impeachment. Liz Cheney had her GOP membership revoked due to her J6 activities. Massie is not in a good place.
(Belated question to Jack: are we still going to have an Open Forum?)