# Will Republicans impeach Biden if they retake Congress?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-republicans-impeach-biden-if-they-retake-congress/962630>\
**Category:** Politics & Elections\
**Created:** [April 10, 2022, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-republicans-impeach-biden-if-they-retake-congress/962630 "2022-04-10T21:33:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 5

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**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\
**Post date:** [April 15, 2022, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-republicans-impeach-biden-if-they-retake-congress/962630/81 "2022-04-15T00:30:22Z")

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Fair enough. I suppose the likelihood of my scenario is inversely proportional to the size of the Republican majority.

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**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\
**Post date:** [April 15, 2022, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-republicans-impeach-biden-if-they-retake-congress/962630/82 "2022-04-15T02:03:25Z")

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> [@flurb](#):
>
> Roberts has no Constitutional authority to decline — when the sitting President is facing an impeachment trial, the Constitution says the CJ “shall preside.”

Note the phrase “sitting president” is relevant here. Roberts declined to preside over Trump’s second impeachment trial because Trump was no longer president at the time, and Roberts didn’t think the Chief Justice was to preside in that case.

> **[Second impeachment trial of Donald Trump | Officers of the trial](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_impeachment_trial_of_Donald_Trump#Officers_of_the_trial)**
>
> Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a interview with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, that Chief Justice John Roberts had declined to preside over the trial because he believed that the chief justice only presided when the current president was tried.
> Patrick Leahy, president pro tempore of the Senate, presided over the trial, in place of Vice President Kamala Harris, the ex officio president of the Senate, who might have involved herself if any tie-breaking votes were needed. Prior to the select...

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**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\
**Post date:** [April 15, 2022, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-republicans-impeach-biden-if-they-retake-congress/962630/83 "2022-04-15T02:30:47Z")

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Yes, the “sitting” was my insert because of Trump’s second impeachment – the Constitution’s precise language (Article I, Section 3, Clause 6) is, “When the President of the United States is tried the Chief Justice shall preside.” There was debate at the time whether that applied in the case of a President who has left office. I think Roberts was probably right that it doesn’t – the logic of having the CJ (rather than the VP as the President of the Senate) preside in Presidential impeachment trials is that the VP has an obvious incentive to help find the President guilty since he/she would become President. That doesn’t apply if the Prez has already left office.

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**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2022, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-republicans-impeach-biden-if-they-retake-congress/962630/84 "2022-04-16T20:59:29Z")

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> [@Senegoid](#):
>
> Note the phrase “sitting president” is relevant here.

Ok. The his ass should have been arrested.

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