# Impeachment proceedings...will they happen? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [April 19, 2019, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impeachment-proceedings-will-they-happen/832795 "2019-04-19T23:08:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 13
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2019, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impeachment-proceedings-will-they-happen/832795/241 "2019-04-25T02:09:06Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > …So yeah, I usually compact it to “impeach the motherfucker” as did Rep. Tliab a few months back. > > But in terms of what the House should do right now, the answer is: authorize the investigation into whether Trump’s committed impeachable offenses. Impeachment comes after that, and removal from office comes after _that_, three steps ahead of where we are now. Should we jump straight to the last step? Absofuckinglutely NOT. That’s right. But a lot of people are pushing for IMPEACH NOW without having an understanding of the steps you outline. That’s a problem. If the House sends over the articles of I. then McConnell can spend one day on sham ‘hearings’ then call for his acquittal vote, and be in perfect compliance with the Constitution. And no one can stop him. > [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > McConnell might hold a sham hearing, but according to Senate rules, he has to proceed to consider them: Nothing in that requires McConnell to provide for legitimate hearings, nor to do anything other than to move to the acquittal vote. > [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > This is simply false. What makes people say stuff like this? The Senate consideration may be a sham, but the House has extremely broad latitude regarding what they can subpoena, who they can question under oath, and who they can hold in contempt. That’s right. And the moment they vote for impeachment and send the articles over to the Senate, McConnell is in total control. So IMPEACH NOW is a gift to Trump. Better: for the House to hold extensive and informative hearings before voting on the impeachment question. > [@CarnalK](#): > > I’ll admit I don’t know the procedural rules of when an impeachment is handed off to the Senate and how many hearings would happen in the House before that, but good god no. I very specifically said that Pelosi is doing what the impatient impeachers want. She is dragging out public investigations and public subpoenas. She can drag it out longer than Benghazi. People like Banquet Bear don’t care, it’s a justice and righteousness thing. They don’t care about it being politically wiser to do what Pelosi is doing. Absolutely true. ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2019, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impeachment-proceedings-will-they-happen/832795/242 "2019-04-25T02:30:51Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > I’ll admit I don’t know the procedural rules of when an impeachment is handed off to the Senate and how many hearings would happen in the House before that, but good god no. I very specifically said that Pelosi is doing what the impatient impeachers want. She is dragging out public investigations and public subpoenas. She can drag it out longer than Benghazi. People like Banquet Bear don’t care, it’s a justice and righteousness thing. …this post would have been a reasonable argument if you didn’t add the gratuitous cheap shot at me and if you hadn’t completely mischaracterized my argument. Please stop doing that. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2019, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impeachment-proceedings-will-they-happen/832795/243 "2019-04-25T02:47:55Z")
Never!! ---
**Author:** ![Thing\_Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@Thing\_Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing_Fish)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2019, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impeachment-proceedings-will-they-happen/832795/244 "2019-04-25T04:32:29Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > OK, let’s try this: I am absolutely convinced that any reasonable investigation into whether Trump has committed impeachable offenses will come up with an answer in the affirmative. And once having come up with that answer, the next step will obviously be to impeach him. > > So yeah, I usually compact it to “impeach the motherfucker” as did Rep. Tliab a few months back. > > But in terms of what the House should do right now, the answer is: authorize the investigation into whether Trump’s committed impeachable offenses. Impeachment comes after that, and removal from office comes after _that_, three steps ahead of where we are now. Should we jump straight to the last step? Absofuckinglutely NOT. Oh. Well, we are 100% in agreement then. ---
**Author:** ![Thing\_Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@Thing\_Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing_Fish)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2019, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impeachment-proceedings-will-they-happen/832795/245 "2019-04-25T06:12:48Z")
> [@nate](#): > > The democrats can choose to be unsuccessfully brave or unsuccessful cowards during this time. Which one will they choose? I love my country and do NOT want blatant corruption to become to norm. Again, anything short of impeachment is giving the green light to this sort of behavior in the future… that is until a Democratic president is elected. The Republicans would have impeachment hearings as soon as the president made eye contact with the AG. Yes, Trump should be impeached and it is disgraceful that this is even a question. But Reagan didn’t get impeached over Iran-Contra and Bush didn’t get impeached for lying to start a war that killed millions. So the argument that failing to impeach Trump would set a bad precedent for the future because what he has done is so much worse than anything any President who didn’t get impeached ever did doesn’t hold water with me. ---
**Author:** ![Thing\_Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@Thing\_Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing_Fish)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2019, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impeachment-proceedings-will-they-happen/832795/246 "2019-04-25T06:26:37Z")
I mean, my personal opinion is that he should have been impeached before he even got inaugurated, on the grounds of general intellectual and moral incapacity. Reagan and Bush May have committed worse crimes while in office than Trump has (so far been definitively proven to have) committed, but they were still better human beings than Trump. They conflated the national interest with the interests of their political and financial backers, but they didn’t have contempt for the very notion that a President should care more about the country than about their own ego. They lied a lot, but only when they had something to gain by doing so and when there was a reasonable chance they wouldn’t get caught. For Trump, lying is just his standard operating procedure. But then, all that was or should have been perfectly obvious at the time the people in their infinite wisdom chose to elect him… ---
**Author:** ![SOJA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@SOJA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SOJA)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2019, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impeachment-proceedings-will-they-happen/832795/247 "2019-04-25T07:36:11Z")
God are some of you quoting that pathological liar Lindsey Graham on his wordage of Clinton’s misdeeds? Yikes. That dumbass, because I firmly believe he’s gay, can’t even be honest with himself and come out of his glass closet. > [@racepug](#): > > Thank you for that. Those who tout her as “intelligent” and “beautiful” I just want to throttle. She is a fraud through and through. I was reading the Boston Globe as one does when they’re bored, about a year ago, and someone had written “Liberals are just jealous of Trump’s status.” Status as POTUS? A dream job very few will ever get close to. His wealth that has never been substantiated with any proof? His third plastic wife? His small mushroom-tipped chode? A laughing stock to all world leaders including those he praises and who take advantage of him? There’s this photo of El Putino and MBS hi-fiving each other. I could only imagine Trump in the middle of what could very well be an Eiffel tower, which is a sex position. Trump is the college campus bicycle. A whore for anyone willing to give him the smallest amount of positive attention. I don’t have an issue with conservatives myself. It’s when they begin outlining such bizarre shit like that where I want to question their mental well-being. I mean even McConnell’s wife has questionable ties to crime via her uncle in Triads related crime. ---
**Author:** ![SOJA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@SOJA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SOJA)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2019, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impeachment-proceedings-will-they-happen/832795/248 "2019-04-25T07:44:37Z")
And let’s not forget that on the morning of Barr’s shameful act where he bent over for the President’s approval, Trump was happy as a bird. As soon as the press got into it, even his beloved Fox, someone leaked his reaction of “I’m going to get impeached. This is fucking bullshit.” He’s like a mix of Lyndon B Johnson’s cursing and Nixon’s virulent anger. Except he isn’t remotely smart as either of those men. I wonder what will leak of Miller’s reaction when he’s held in contempt and the Sergeant at Arms goes after him. I would love to know what, probably stunning Latina way outside his league, turned him down for him to be such an utter dick later in life aside from the fact he was a dick in high school. There’s a reason Jewish people call him a kapo. Saying it right now. The IC will rake him over the coals in 2020 alone for what he did to them. ---
**Author:** ![UnwittingAmericans](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/d9b06d/32.png) [@UnwittingAmericans](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UnwittingAmericans)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2019, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impeachment-proceedings-will-they-happen/832795/249 "2019-04-25T07:52:25Z")
People may need to go back and look at the sequence in Watergate: [ul] [li]The Senate opened a committee to investigate early in 1973[/li][li]McCord went into a closed-door session and blew everything wide open, he gave them their roadmap for the investigation. It leaked, so they went to open hearings.[/li][li]There were bombshell revelations during the course of the hearings, including the existence of the tapes.[/li][li]The Senate committee finished and issued a report in June 1973[/li][li]In early 1974, the House authorized Judiciary to investigate. Among other things, they subpoena’d the tapes, Nixon released edited versions, and Judiciary got a Supreme Court ruling for everything.[/li][li]Judiciary voted out articles of impeachment end of July[/li][li]The smoking gun tape was released _ **after** _ that but before a whole House vote was taken[/li][/ul] Mueller has done the work the Senate committee did, the difference is, it was on TV and everybody watched, whereas with Mueller, you have a pdf file that nobody will read, and besides, oh look, a kitteh video. If the House thinks they can add to the list (for example on the financial front), they should. They better move fast. #1 should be to get McGahn up there ASAP, I know they already scheduled him, but Trump will surely attempt to block it. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2019, 9:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impeachment-proceedings-will-they-happen/832795/250 "2019-04-25T09:12:02Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > That’s right. But a lot of people are pushing for IMPEACH NOW without having an understanding of the steps you outline. Tru dat. We’ve got some areas of agreement, as well as things we disagree on. > [@](#): > > That’s a problem. If the House sends over the articles of I. then McConnell can spend one day on sham ‘hearings’ then call for his acquittal vote, and be in perfect compliance with the Constitution. And no one can stop him. He can hold whatever hearings he wants, of course. But in response to articles of impeachment passed by the House, “when the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside” per Article I, Section 3 of the Constitution. Say what you will about Roberts, I doubt he’ll let himself appear to be Mitch McConnell’s lackey. So he can either have that trial with Roberts, C.J. presiding, or not have an impeachment trial at all. In either case, he can have whatever hearings he wants, but in the former case, they don’t officially have any connection with the trial. > [@](#): > > Nothing in that requires McConnell to provide for legitimate hearings, nor to do anything other than to move to the acquittal vote. Yes and no. Mitch changed some Senate rules just the other day, in order to limit debate on Federal judges to 2 hours each, rather than 30 hours as the Senate rules say - or rather, _had_ said. So he can just as easily dispense with any Senate rules requiring an impeachment trial once the House passes articles of impeachment. (And my money says he will ditch them.) BUT as I said earlier, if he chooses to have a trial, Chief Justice Roberts will be in charge of the trial, not Mitch. He can change Senate rules at will, but he can’t amend the Constitution. He will not be able to control it, which is the biggest reason why I believe he won’t let it happen at all. ---
**Author:** ![SOJA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@SOJA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SOJA)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2019, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impeachment-proceedings-will-they-happen/832795/251 "2019-04-25T09:25:31Z")
The smoking gun tape? I’m afraid I’m too young to have been around during Watergate and my knowledge of the events and ones surrounding are what I recall from The Post and the Mark Felt movies that came out a couple years ago. It never occurred to me growing up, becoming an adult and aging that we’d ever face another Nixon… ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2019, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impeachment-proceedings-will-they-happen/832795/252 "2019-04-25T10:23:20Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > If the House sends over the articles of I. then McConnell can spend one day on sham ‘hearings’ then call for his acquittal vote, and be in perfect compliance with the Constitution. And no one can stop him. This is not news to anyone. You’re beating a dead horse here. > [@](#): > > Better: for the House to hold extensive and informative hearings before voting on the impeachment question. Do you not understand that this is exactly what the impeachment process entails in the House? It seems like you’re arguing the point without understanding this this very basic thing. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2019, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impeachment-proceedings-will-they-happen/832795/253 "2019-04-25T12:57:57Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > Mitch changed some Senate rules just the other day, in order to limit debate on Federal judges to 2 hours each, rather than 30 hours as the Senate rules say - or rather, _had_ said. So he can just as easily dispense with any Senate rules requiring an impeachment trial once the House passes articles of impeachment. (And my money says he will ditch them.) He can get away with that only as long as he can prevent enough defections to keep his job. It would be very difficult for any of them but the hardline Fox loyalists to stick with the party line once impeachment is a fact and all the facts supporting it are public. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2019, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impeachment-proceedings-will-they-happen/832795/254 "2019-04-25T13:02:09Z")
> [@UnwittingAmericans](#): > > Mueller has done the work the Senate committee did, the difference is, it was on TV and everybody watched, whereas with Mueller, you have a pdf file that nobody will read, and besides, oh look, a kitteh video. Everybody watched the HJC hearings because all three networks showed them live and there was nothing else on. There was a common understanding of the facts. Today, that wouldn’t be true, at least not until Fox decides to cut him loose. They’re already flying trial balloons with Chris Wallace and Shepard Smith as token voices of reality. ---
**Author:** ![UnwittingAmericans](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/d9b06d/32.png) [@UnwittingAmericans](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UnwittingAmericans)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2019, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impeachment-proceedings-will-they-happen/832795/255 "2019-04-25T14:03:57Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Everybody watched the HJC hearings because all three networks showed them live and there was nothing else on. There was a common understanding of the facts. Today, that wouldn’t be true, at least not until Fox decides to cut him loose. They’re already flying trial balloons with Chris Wallace and Shepard Smith as token voices of reality. Sure, that’s true. My main point overall is that exposure of the DETAIL of the Mueller report is necessary. There’s a difference between hearing someone got shot, and seeing them get shot. I don’t care about whatever bullshit Trump and Giuliani and Fox come up with. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2019, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impeachment-proceedings-will-they-happen/832795/256 "2019-04-25T14:44:54Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > This is not news to anyone. You’re beating a dead horse here. Actually I think it _is_ news to some, so not beating a dead horse. > [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > Do you not understand that this is exactly what the impeachment process entails in the House? It seems like you’re arguing the point without understanding this this very basic thing. _Is_ this exactly the impeachment process in the House? Because up to now, it hasn’t been. In Watergate, the impeachment hearings were conducted by the Senate, not the House. And in the Clinton impeachment process, the House held no hearings. They simply took the Starr report and then voted to impeach, sending the matter again up to the Senate for hearings/removal proceedings. Can you cite me to where this is “exactly the impeachment process” employed by the House? Or where in the Constitution the impeachment process allows the House to hold hearings? I mean yes, they can conduct investigative or oversight hearings – that is always their prerogative. But impeachment hearings? Not being snarky. I would really like this issue cleared up. I have yet to hear any talking head on any network refer to hearings conducted in the House as impeachment hearings. I think this lack of clarity has contributed greatly to misunderstanding the path Nancy Pelosi has chosen. ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2019, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impeachment-proceedings-will-they-happen/832795/257 "2019-04-25T14:54:10Z")
> [@Aspenglow](#): > > Can you cite me to where this is “exactly the impeachment process” employed by the House? Or where in the Constitution the impeachment process allows the House to hold hearings? I mean yes, they can conduct investigative or oversight hearings – that is always their prerogative. But impeachment hearings? …I’ve provided two cites and I’ve posted the link to one of the cites twice. I’ve even quoted the relevant parts. Twice. But if you don’t want to read my post here’s a hint: google impeachment in the US. There is no shortage of relevant links. ---
**Author:** ![Thing\_Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@Thing\_Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing_Fish)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2019, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impeachment-proceedings-will-they-happen/832795/258 "2019-04-25T15:02:33Z")
But is there a meaningful distinction there? Say, for example, that Congress passes a resolution to hold hearings investigating that sketchy meeting at Trump Tower. Does the way those hearings are conducted change in any way depending on whether that resolution explicitly says that the hearings are for the purpose of deciding whether or not to impeach the President? ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2019, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impeachment-proceedings-will-they-happen/832795/259 "2019-04-25T15:03:57Z")
If the Administration blocks such requests saying… as they are doing… that there is no legitimate legislative need for these investigations, then “Impeachment” is the legislative remedy allowed by the Constitution. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2019, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impeachment-proceedings-will-they-happen/832795/260 "2019-04-25T15:46:47Z")
> [@Aspenglow](#): > > _Is_ this exactly the impeachment process in the House? Because up to now, it hasn’t been. False. Impeachment proceedings in the House are whatever the House Judiciary determines to be needful. And in Nixon’s case… > [@](#): > > In Watergate, the impeachment hearings were conducted by the Senate, not the House. False. Impeachment hearings were held by the House Judiciary Committee starting May 4th 1972, resulting in the public revelation of much new information and evidence, finally culminating in an impeachment vote on Jul 27th 1972. The Senate never took up the matter at all, being that Sens. Goldwater and Rhodes convinced Nixon that the outcome was certain conviction. [(a very easily discovered cite)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impeachment_process_against_Richard_Nixon#Impeachment_hearings). With the amount of evidence and witnesses Mueller has amassed, and the number of threads that Mueller left unpursued, obstructed, redacted, classified, or punted to Congress, I could easily see House impeachment proceedings taking 4-6 months if they’re thorough. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impeachment-proceedings-will-they-happen/832795.md?page=12) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/impeachment-proceedings-will-they-happen/832795.md?page=14)