February 09, 2021 02:00 PM UTC

Historic Second Impeachment Trial Underway

•  
• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE #2: You can count CNN’s Chris Cillizza among those impressed with Rep. Joe Neguse today:

The Colorado congressman was a litigator in private practice prior to being elected to Congress in 2018. And it sure showed during his breakdown of the key question of the first day of the trial: Is it, in fact, unconstitutional to hold an impeachment trial for a former president? Neguse repeatedly went right to the text of our founding document to make his case that it was, in fact, entirely within the bounds of the Constitution to do so. (Even the textualists among Republican senators had to be at least a little impressed with Neguse’s close reading and expert analysis.) For Democrats looking for young stars in the making, Neguse has to be near or at the top of that list after his compelling and convincing performance on Tuesday. At 36 years old, he’s got a lot of time to decide what interests him most — rising through the ranks in the House or running statewide for governor or Senate down the line. But Neguse has the makings of a future face of the national Democratic Party — and he showed why on Tuesday.

—–

UPDATE: Congressman Joe Neguse (D-Boulderish) makes the case for why former President Trump can and should be impeached despite no longer being in office. From The Washington Post:

Joe Neguse (D-Colo.), one of the House impeachment managers, cited historical precedents and the views of several conservative legal scholars as he sought to make the case that it was constitutional for the Senate to try Trump after he has already left office.

Neguse walked senators through the impeachments of Sen. William Blount in 1797 and Secretary of War William Belknap in 1876, both of which occurred after the men were no longer in office.

Blount, a senator from Tennessee, was caught conspiring with the British to try to sell Florida and Louisiana and President John Adams caught him, Neguse relayed.

—–

Here’s the video that House impeachment managers presented to open the impeachment trial against former President Trump:

Democrats kick off impeachment trial with video of Jan. 6, showing Trump’s remarks at the rally followed by the violent and deadly insurrection in the Capitol.
“Senators, the president was impeached by the U.S. House of representatives January 13th for doing that,” Raskin says pic.twitter.com/YOA75QXEnc

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) February 9, 2021