Democrats Flirt With Throwing in the Towel on Impeachment, Consider Censuring Donald Trump

U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) forced a vote to stop the impeachment of former President Donald Trump on the basis that it was a ‘sham’ impeachment. This was in part because Supreme Court Justice John Roberts isn’t even presiding over it since Donald Trump in no longer in office.

Although the measure failed, it got Senators on record. The vote showed only 5 Republicans not voting to end the impeachment. If the vote stayed the same, or even more Republicans than that voted not to convict, the second impeachment of former President Trump would be dead on arrival.

Democrats know this and are now hedging their bets, flirting with the idea of Censuring instead, of the former president’s actions before the January 6th U.S. Capitol riot that they blame on Donald Trump. SNC tweeted:

“Sens. Kaine, Collins Pitch Colleagues on Censuring Trump as Alternative to Impeachment”

Sens. Kaine, Collins Pitch Colleagues on Censuring Trump as Alternative to Impeachment https://t.co/9ux5dQDvVk

— SNC 🇺🇲 (@RealNewsSNC) January 27, 2021

MSN reported in part:

Sens. Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Susan Collins (R-ME) are reportedly asking their Senate colleagues to consider a resolution censuring former President Donald Trump.

It isn’t clear whether the duo would support moving forward with an impeachment trial in the event their proposal won support, according to three sources who described the discussions for a Tuesday Axios report. A resolution to censure the former president would require just 60 of the Senate’s 100 votes, significantly fewer than the 67 that would be required to convict him after impeachment proceedings.

Some Democrats have reportedly said they would only be interested if Senate Republicans provided enough support reach that 60-vote threshold, a potentially ambitious margin. Just five Senate Republicans voted on Tuesday to move forward with Trump’s impeachment trial. That group included Collins along with Sens. Lisa Murkowski (AK), Sen. Pat Toomey (PA), Sen. Ben Sasse (NE), and Sen. Mitt Romney (UT).

“I think it’s pretty obvious from the vote today, that it is extraordinarily unlikely that the president will be convicted,” Collins said after the vote. “Just do the math.”

Time will tell how history views Donald Trump, but appears this “posthumous” impeachment isn’t going to fly. It is still hard to Trump to push onward politically without his social media platforms, and the impeachment technically isn’t over yet.

If history shows anything about Donald Trump it’s that he doesn’t give up when the chips are down. Some may argue he accomplishes his best work under pressure. This being said it’s likely that we will continue to hear more from Donald Trump and his “Office of the Former President” that was just created.