We cannot ever underestimate Pelosi’s ambitions——House Dems KNOW their specious impeachment articles would fail to convict Trump in the Republican Senate. Ergo, Dems deviously in an addition joker in their already stacked impeachment deck, namely the remote possibility predicated on a long-ago law, not allowing Trump to take office even if he is reelected next year.
It is indeed acrass partisan maneuver that would cause the Founders to spin in their graves.
EXCERPT the two Articles of Impeachment include the wording that Trump should not only be impeached, tried and removed from office, but that he also warrants “disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States.”
As the precedent set in the three previous trials of Federal judges has never been reversed by the Senate or adjudicated in any Federal court, the disqualification of President Trump would probably be decided by a separate majority vote, rather than the two-thirds vote on the two Articles of Impeachment.
Therefore, even though there is little doubt that a two-thirds vote for conviction and removal from office could not be obtained in the Republican- controlled Senate, if disqualification is brought to a separate majority vote the picture would be far less clear in a Senate where the GOP has only a fifty-three to forty-seven vote majority and just four Republican defections could tip the scales of justice against the president.
In the case of a tie vote, unlike a regular Senate session or trial, a presidential impeachment trial is presided over by Chief Justice Roberts of the Supreme Court and he would cast the tie-breaking vote rather than the vice-president.
Rebecca Ballhouse, the White House reporter for the Wall Street Journal, has pointed out the anomaly that had the disqualification clause not been included, even if the president were to be convicted and removed from office, he could still run for reelection next year. A second possible and more nefarious scenario, however, would be the case of President Trump being acquitted on the Articles themselves by a two-thirds vote, and then by a simple majority vote, being disqualified from taking office even if he is reelected.
The Senate as a Court of Impeachment will be sailing in highly unchartered waters, as the clause citing disqualification has never been used in a presidential impeachment trial and the compass for the Senate guidelines as to the procedures to be followed for such a vote seem to point in two different directions. While the Senate rules state in one section that if, after a vote on the Articles, the respondent is found not guilty on all charges, the Court of Impeachment would then adjourn. The following section, however, says that adjournment would take place after a verdict of guilty or not guilty has been rendered “and the of the disqualification, if presented” has taken place. Since the procedure for the taking of such votes is not clearly delineated, new guidelines may have to be established for a trial that could result in a truly catch 22 situation.
As in 1868, the overriding desire to rid the country of what is somehow considered to be an illegitimate presidency has led to a hastily devised impeachment based on extremely questionable evidence.
(https://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/blog/the-ghosts-of-impeachment past)
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