Fat hurts wrote:
L L wrote:
I don’t think the president could take the fifth in an impeachment trial.
He has to answer to the allegations , on the record, under oath.
If he refuses, this isn’t an ordinary court of law.
This is political.
You can’t pick indictments based on 100% probability of conviction.
I understand that he could rape a baby on live TV and you couldn’t get 20 senators to convict.
But you have to charge him.
This country needs a trial on him based on the public evidence we have already.
Trump knows what he has done. And he knows what the investigators know because he is the president.
But the public needs to know everything. Even if it doesn’t result in a senate conviction.
Put it all out there.
The president would still have his fifth amendment rights. Surely you don't think the Constitution is thrown away in an impeachment trial?
But it wouldn't even get that far. Tiny would not show up for what he would surely declare is a "sham" of a trial. Then the senate would vote. And they would vote to acquit. Then Tiny is off the hook politically.
So impeachment is a really, really bad idea.
(BTW, Clinton didn't testify at his senate impeachment trial. I'm not sure if he was even asked to show up.)
If you think Tiny would sit there and answer questions from Democratic senators you are dreaming. Never gonna happen.
For any option that requires trump’s voluntary cooperation - forget it. For any option that requires the voluntary cooperation of any GOPer against trump - forget it. Here’s how it can play out then: 1) Mueller’s report turns out to be air tight and Dems can bring forth a convincing impeachment proceeding - whether successful or not can be damaging enough. Trump has definitely given away some of his guilt, remember one tweet “How can they impeach a President who is doing a great job?”. 2) Mueller’s report is weak on Trump’s involvement and they to impeach anyway. This is a giant gamble - basically praying that when the dust settles Trump and GOP will be damaged more than the Dems in 2020. The other massive downside is it will allow trump to avoid warranted charges. 3) No impeachment - safest option by far. Let Trump keep appealing to the 46% while shooting himself in the foot with the rest of the country and firing up Dems to vote.
Elections have consequences - Americans got him into the office we knew we would be stuck with him for at least 4 years. Now we need to vote him out the same way, it’s all on us.