Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats Cannot Have Their Cake and Eat It Too

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by Paul D. Dowling 

“Ask yourself, if Dems are so hellbent on ‘protecting our Republic from Trump’ then why have they left for Christmas break w/o sending the Articles of Impeachment over to the Senate for his removal?     Truth: this is an unconstitutional impeachment sham with ZERO evidence.”                                                          

Rudi Giuliani, in a tweet dated December 23, 2019

 

The House Holds the Power to Impeach, Not the Speaker

There are Democrats, including a Harvard law professor, who claim that the president is not impeached – despite a House vote to do so – if the Speaker does not deliver the articles of impeachment to the Senate.  In other words, Pelosi and the Democrats want to have their cake and eat it too.  They wish to impeach President Trump on the record, yet put on indefinite hold the trial by which the president might clear his name.  But nowhere does the Constitution empower the Speaker to act in such a way that the president might remain unimpeached, after an impeachment vote by the House.  According to the words of Democrats like Noah Feldman, the president has not yet been impeached, since Pelosi has withheld the articles of impeachment from the Senate.  “The Constitution doesn’t say how fast the articles must go to the Senate,” writes Feldman.  However, the reason the Constitution does not specify any such speed requirement is that the delivery of paperwork is never mentioned.  The sole Constitutional requirement for impeachment is a vote.

 

Here is what the Constitution says about impeachment, in Article I, Section 2: “The House of Representatives shall choose their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment.”  This means that the vote of the entire House is the singular event required for impeaching a president.  Even if there exists some legend, in Nancy Pelosi’s mind, put into print by the likes of Noah Feldman, that the Speaker has the power to finalize an impeachment or keep it in limbo, this attempt by Feldman and the Democrats to “print the legend,” so to speak, is not going to work, for the truth is this: The Constitution saw print long before any Pelosi or Feldman fake-history rewrite.

 

The Senate Holds the Power to Try an Impeachment, Unrestrained by the House Speaker

The Constitution, in Article I, Section 3, reads as follows: “The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments.  When sitting for that Purpose, they shall be on Oath or Affirmation.  When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: And no Person shall be convicted without the Concurrence of two-thirds of the Members present.”  Once impeached by a vote, the Senate has “sole power” to try the impeachment, without having to obtain formal documentary evidence of the vote.  Pelosi’s attempt to withhold permission for the trial, by keeping paperwork to herself, is not a Constitutionally-granted power.

 

Conviction of the President for Exercising Executive Power Is Un-Constitutional

Article II, Section 4, of the Constitution says this: “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.”  There is, however, no evidence that President Trump is guilty of any such crimes.  Hearsay, rumor, and gossip do not provide a solid basis upon which to impeach a President of the United States, no matter how believable this propaganda may have become in the ideologically-driven minds of those who regularly read the Democrat Party’s yellow press, such as the Washington Post and the New York Times.  Like the fake news, Democrats write in their media outlets, it is a fake impeachment which has been perpetrated by the Democrat-controlled House upon the American people.

 

The Separation of Powers

It bears mentioning that the two articles of impeachment passed by the House – “obstruction of Congress” and “abuse of power” – are laughably inappropriate, since the Separation of Powers doctrine upon which America’s Constitutional republic operates charges the Executive and the Judiciary with the active and intentional obstruction of Congress, by means of presidential vetoes and appellate-court rulings, etc.; if there was an impeachment every time a federal official exercised his Constitutional power, without first getting approval from Congress as to words and actions, the Legislature would become the usurper of the Executive and the Judiciary, effectively killing the Separation of Powers and leaving Americans with a dictatorial State wielding absolute power over them, with no checks or balances to thwart its despotism.

 

About The Author

Paul Dowling has written about the Constitution, as well as articles for American Thinker, Independent Sentinel, Godfather Politics, Eagle Rising, and Conservative Notions.

 


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D3F1ANT
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D3F1ANT
4 years ago

NanPo CAN have her cake and eat it too. Why not? Republicans do NOTHING to stop her. I mean, if we fought back that would be different. But even without the articles the Senate can act. Instead we dither…

Lisa
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Lisa
4 years ago
Reply to  D3F1ANT

I agree, I don’t think the Republicans are fighting back hard enough…there are so many RINOS now, it is hard to tell who is a real conservative