Some in the GOP would like to see the impeachment vote in the Senate conducted by secret ballot. They are traitors to the party and to the American people.
At the end of October, Sens. Mitt Romney and Lindsey Graham both indicated that voting to remove President Trump from the Oval Office is on the table for them should the House pass articles of impeachment.
In September, GOP strategist and never Trumper Mike Murphy predicted that 30 Republican senators would convict President Donald Trump of impeachment. It would be under one condition. It would have to be a secret vote. His information came — allegedly — from an unnamed Republican senator. Since he was a Romney adviser, it wouldn’t be assuming too much to think it came from the Trump-hating senator from Utah.
“One Republican senator told me if it was a secret vote, 30 Republican senators would vote to impeach Trump,” Murphy claimed, suggesting that the GOP lawmakers are concerned that voting against the president could harm them politically [cowards]. The Senate is currently controlled by Republicans, with 53 GOP lawmakers serving in the legislative body.
“These Senate Republicans, should the Democrats vote impeachment, which is far more likely than not, are going to be pinned down to a yes/no answer,” Murphy, who previously advised Republican politicians including Mitt Romney, John McCain, and Jeb Bush, said in an interview with MSNBC.
“The politics of it will get worse and worse for Trump,” the Republican political consultant, who has long been harshly critical of Trump, said.
MORE DISCUSSION OF A SECRET VOTE
Former GOP adviser Juleanna Glover’s argued on Tuesday that the Senate should introduce a rule change to allow senators to cast secret impeachment votes. Writing for Politico, Glover asks, “What if senators could vote on impeachment by secret ballot? If they didn’t have to face backlash from constituents or the media or the president himself, who knows how many Republican senators would vote to remove?”
Glover suggests this rule change would be justified in that trial jurors often vote in private.
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If senators don’t want their votes recorded and their records scrutinized, they have no business serving in the Senate.
The problem of corruption in government would be magnified if politicians lose all semblance of accountability. It’s bad enough that they lie about what they stand for. If there are 30 Republicans who want to oust Donald Trump so they can install a socialist Democrat, they are corrupt.
In the heart of democracy, the Republic, this so-called GOP adviser wants to kill off an important piece of democracy.
COULD IT BE CHANGED
A simple majority in the Senate could change the rules and create a secret ballot in the impeachment trial. It would only take 51 senators. However, there are problems with it. The vote to make it a secret would not be secret, which would be a dead giveaway. Also, any single senator can filibuster a rule change.
It probably won’t happen, but they could not show up as an alternative.
“The Constitution doesn’t indicate that removal from office requires two-thirds of the Senate. It requires two-thirds of senators present for the proceedings,” Laurence Tribe wrote at the Washingtonian.
“It allows for the all-important two-thirds threshold to exist along a sliding scale—far from the full attendance of the 100-member Senate. In theory, a vote to convict the President (or anyone else) would count as legal with as few as 34 members, not 67, assuming the absolute minimum (51) participated,” the hopeful Trump hater wrote.
The Senators whos vote to have a secret ballot better hide and never show up in public again. They will be hunted down by an angry electorate and tarred and feathered, like the old days.
Only spineless cowards would entertain the notion of a secret ballot. Unfortunately for our country, this is what the gop has become in the 21st Century. Craven, spineless cowards.
First, we have to continue to press by public opinon, especially the House democrats and the Republican senators. President should ask his supporters to call them. Then the three senators that won’t vote to throw the impeachment out have to know nobody is gonna vote for republicans if they don’t support Trump. The weaklings must be premaried in the senate or we lose both houses. McConnel needs to push harder, without presidents help, a lot of senators would lose. No secret ballot. If McConnel doesn’t keep them in check he’s a sellout.
This is a very ugly idea from some coup cheerleaders. These people are just more schemers wanting to subvert voters.
I estimate there are 10-15 republican senators who would consider removing Trump. That could be enough.
One of the things that the group think Trump haters omit is that, if Trump were removed by secret ballot, or open ballot, it would destroy the party. There would be a national uproar beyond any other. The dems would easily win the senate. The party would be dead nationally.