Let us imagine that the Democratic Party regains control of the House and the Senate at the mid-term elections. Many Trump voters are fearing their faces will be eaten by leopards, so this might actually happen. Let us further imagine that Trump and his policies tank the economy and sends the country (possibly the world) into a recession. Now let’s enter the realm of fantasy, wherein Trump is impeached, convicted, and removed from office. (In my opinion, if Democrats hold both sides of Congress, impeachment is at least possible if not likely. IMO, conviction would fall short of the necessary votes, upon which removal from office depends.)
In that scenario, JD Vance would become President. I can’t think of any ‘high crimes or misdemeanours’ Vance may have committed, but I think the House could find something. What would happen if the Democrats said, ‘JD, here’s the scene: You either become a Liberal real quick, or you’ll be gone too. How would you like our Democratic Speaker of the House to replace you?’
Hopefully, either in the fantastic double-impeachment scenario, or as the result of the 2028 elections, we will have a Democratic President. Could that President overturn all of Trump’s executive orders all at once? Or would s/he have to rescind them one at a time?
Executive orders do not have force of law and are simply directives to the Cabinet departments as to how to do their jobs. They can be overturned by another executive order that says “Orders Xxxxx - Yyyyyy are hereby revoked”.
In that scenario, I’d expect Vance to revert to his previous, more mainstream, “Trump is the American Hitler” positions, and just keep his head down.
Remember, “High Crimes and Misdemeanors” is a term of art, essentially meaning unfit for office. It’s use that way predates the Republic, and the founders were well aware of it. It was one of the ways the Brits had to remove someone from office. So they would be within their authority to can Vance as well.
Sidenote: One of those things that infuriates me is when people like Alan Dershowitz say Trump didn’t commit any High Crimes (note, not even defined in the law to my knowledge) or Misdemeanors, because I am quite sure he knows full well what that term is.
When Nixon was in trouble Agnew quickly resigned in the face of conspiracy and tax fraud charges in Maryland where he was previously governor. Many suspect the charges wouldn’t have been filed as long as Nixon had control of the situation. Some think Nixon had been holding this over his head and ratted him out to distract people from his own troubles but I’ve never seen anything like a confirmation of that.
Does Trump or anyone else have anything on Vance? I don’t know, but if Trump is gone he won’t have the widespread support Trump did, the GOP will become fragmented, the Democrats will be in charge, and Vance will be a weak and powerless president.
“Thomas Jefferson and Calvin Coolidge did not use a Bible in their oath-taking ceremonies. Theodore Roosevelt did not use the Bible when taking the oath in 1901, nor did John Quincy Adams, who swore on a book of law, with the intention that he was swearing on the Constitution.”
“The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”
US Constitution, Article VI, Section 3.
Putting your hand on the Bible is theater for the masses. One might argue doing so is a violation of the Constitution.
I took the oath several times. There was no Bible present, and if there were, I would not have used it.
Trump’s allowing DOGE to run roughshod over the Civil Service is largely illegal by all accounts. I’m pretty sure Vance is on the record as defending this. A Democratic Congress could make the case that he willfully violated the law or conspired or abetted its violation. Seems like that could fall in the category of a crime or misdemeanor.
This has not been my experience. A friend on Facebook asked for a calm, reasoned discussion about what was happening in our country. One of her friends posted about the wonderful job Trump was doing. They enthusiastically supported Musk and DOGE. Another friend made a comment about leopards eating that poster’s face. She did not understand the phrase and thought it was a personal attack.
I have seen in the news that Trumpists who have lost their jobs due to DOGE are waking up. I have not seen any evidence that any other Trumpists are. They still believe the leopards will not eat their particular face.
If the Democrats have enough power to throw Trump out of office, they have enough to override any vetoes from Vance, so they don’t need to blackmail him into being more liberal.
Democratic Texas Representative Al Green has hit back at Donald Trump after he was kicked out of the president’s joint address to Congress on Tuesday, saying that he is “working on” Articles of Impeachment against the president. …
“I’m working on my articles of impeachment,” Green said to reporters on Tuesday after he was removed by the House sergeant-at-arms following multiple interruptions of Trump’s address.
“This president is unfit. He should not hold the office—34 felony convictions, two times impeached,” Green added.
Yeah, I’d rather they not waste time on quixotic impeachment attempts, and save it for if/when they either have a chance, or at least have something so egregious that it’s worth making the Republicans vote against it on the record.
Vance is very ambitious; he wants to be president. If he thought there was a credible threat of impeachment against himself, I think he would immediately start negotiating with Democrats to prevent that. Maybe he would offer to have a joint Republican-Democratic government or at least one that’s not fascist; maybe he would pick a Supreme Court judge that Democrats want. Something like that. And Democrats would probably be wise to take such an offer. Vance would probably have a poor chance of winning in 2028 under the circumstances described in the OP, and it would be better simply to win that election than try to do a double impeachment, which could seem like a hacking of the government in the same spirit as Trump is hacking it. IMHO.