Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., will preside over former President Donald Trump’s trial in the Senate, a Senate source tells NPR. Leahy, 80, is the president pro tempore of the Senate, a constitutional role given to the longest-serving lawmaker in the majority party. The president pro tempore is third in the line of presidential succession, after the vice president and House speaker.
“I have presided over hundreds of hours in my time in the Senate,” Leahy told reporters. “I don’t think anybody has ever suggested I was anything but impartial in those hundreds of hours.”
Leahy added: “I’m not presenting the evidence. I am making sure that procedures are followed. I don’t think there’s any senator who over the 40-plus years I’ve been here that would say that I am anything but impartial in voting on procedure.”
Chief Justice John Roberts presided over President Trump’s first impeachment trial, but now that Trump is a former president, Roberts is not constitutionally obligated to preside.
GOPUSA Editor’s Note: There is not a lot of agreement over the constitutional requirement of who presides over the impeachment trial of a former president. The following 2 articles may shed some light:
Reports: Chief Justice John Roberts Will Not Preside At Upcoming Trump Senate Trial
House impeachment managers will deliver the article of impeachment to the Senate Monday evening, and the trial is scheduled to begin the week of Feb. 8.
On Jan. 13, Trump became the only president in U.S. history to be impeached twice by the U.S. House of Representatives. House Democrats brought one article of impeachment – “incitement of insurrection” – related to remarks he made to a crowd loyal to him Jan. 6 that resulted in a fatal riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Trump, the first one-term president since George H.W. Bush in the 1990s, lost the November election to Biden, but has repeatedly and baselessly challenged the results citing little or false evidence.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
© KPCC – 89.3 FM Copyright © 2021 SCPR All rights reserved.
And to Nanzi Pelosi’s everlasting shame, she will go down as the Only Speaker of the House to twice abuse her Constituional powers to impeach, failed in BOTH instances. Both instances she knew she could not succeed, but used her power anyway, the sure sign of the pathology of absolute power that not only corrupted her, but corrupted her absolutely. Political pwer in the hands of such pathology is the equivalent of puttong a loaded gun into the hands of a 5 yearold. In most cases they just shoot themselves, just like Nanzi is doing now. Hostorians would have to be socialistically indoctrinated to show her in any kind of light or success. Just ask her why she did this twice to a duly elected President, and the impotent egoist answer as most tyrants respond is “Because I can,”
No Supreme Court judge, no official valid impeachment. Throwing Leahy into the mixup is just a prelude to a Democrat packing of the Supreme Court. Another Democrat party exercise in Power acquisition by any means necessary, the Constitution be damned.
DO You honestly think they CARE IF ITS a valid impeachment??
And isn’t this Sen. Patrick Leahy the same Senator who was once Called, ” Leaky Leahy ” and kicked off a Committee for leaking Classified Information ? And now is the senator who ” inaugurates the proceedings and will preside over the Impeachment of Former President Donald Trump, ” Give Us A Break. ” !
I’d bet the farm President Trump could care less… But… that’s what everyone wants to see… these useless treasonous fragments of dung focus on impeachment of someone who is not part of the government… instead of getting $2000.00 in the hands of people who are about to become homeless because of the fake hysteria of the CHINA virus and killing every ones jobs with shut downs. Everyone hates these people …why?
Like Sen. Patrick Leahy said, he will be impartial, in replacing John Roberts. Yep, Patrick, poisonous snakes are “impartial” on who they select as their victims!
I do NOT trust him to be impartial.. he is a liar filled with extreme hate for Trump.. IN NO way will he be impartial.. he wants Trump impeached…
“I don’t think there’s any senator who over the 40-plus years I’ve been here that would say that I am anything but impartial in voting on procedure.”
I don’t put much faith in what any senator might say of another these days. Most of them are election fraud deniers!
I put no faith in….ANYTHING… ANY… government official say’s or does period! Local, state or federal! They…ALL… lie with no ramification or accountability… and now we can’t even vote them out because they control the fraudulent election system. There’s only one option left.
And that option, is exactly what, GG??
Little men from Little States all suffer from Napoleon complexes and when given power always try to make the stronger real men, states and statesmen suffer for former perceived wrongs or ego shattering imagined offenses. Fake Impeachments will be their Waterloo’s
Its amazing isn’t it That ” The never Republican, ” Rino’s , ” Never Trumpers” would Join wit the democrats in this Farce being Carried out Here?
IF he’s IMPARTIAL, may an asteroid blow up the moon!
As Rush describes Leahy as leaky Leahy. Leahy should do something he’s good at, changing his depends.
IMPEACH PROBLEM? Plenty of them. How do you remove someone from office who is no longer in office? Con it be Constitutional if the Chief Justice does not preside? If they get away with it then pass a law to prohibit Donald trump from running will it be legal to do so to someoen who is already a private citizen?
I do NOT look for this to be fair.. a hateful lying DemocRAT presiding over Trump’s sham of an impeachment? Oh yeah, what could go wrong… this entire impeachment needs to be tossed out… but then, the democRATS are insane.. they have been since Trump took office.. they have done nothing but spread their vicious lies filled with extreme hate through his entire time in office… Will this sham of trial be fair… NO WAY IT WILL BE..
GOD HELP OUR COUNTRY WITH THESE EVIL DEMOCRATS IN OFFICE…
Know good and well he is in this for the power and the headlines. If he was so impartial, he would have dismissed it already.
I can’t imagine anything being fair where a Democrat is involved.
Hell, you’d stand a better chance of imagining it BEING FAIR, with a dem in charge.. CAUSE THAT’s all you’ll be able find of fairness with them. IN THE REALM OF IMAGINATIONS!
I don’t trust Leaky Leahy nor do I trust the Republican party of Betrayal.
I believe both partys intend to ensure Trump does not return. And just like the stolen election there is little we can do to stop this from happening.
A Liberal from Vermont. Nothing to see here. Even if they are successful they will only make Trump stronger. I am done with the Republican party. What an embarrassment. Biden has already been a disaster in 3 business days. Costing people their jobs.
This is even worse than the show-trials of the old Soviet Union.
OR those ones IRAN did to US people they catch in country..
Bottom line: This is NOT a Constitutional Impeachment trial!
The Constitution specifically articulates that the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States presides over the Impeachment Trial in the Senate.
Chief Justice Roberts has (wisely) declined to participate in this SHAM of an impeachment!
Therefore, whatever the Democrats are doing (or calling it) – it’s NOT a Constitutional Impeachment trial.
As such, the RESULTS of this Kangaroo Court is NULL AND VOID (has NO Legal consequences)!
In other words: IF the Democrats convict Donald Trump, and vote to prohibit him from holding public office – that VOTE will hold NO LEGAL weight. Donald Trump can (should) sue any state that refuses to put his name on any future ballot!
You honestly think THEY CARE WHAT the constitution says??
Its obvious, The. Justices in the Supreme Court don’t Care What Th e Coonstitution says, its What the democrat Supreme Court justices says that ths Constitution meas as as they interpert the Constitution.
leahy is from the same pathetic state as sanders. They are both whacky. And this phony hoax of a so called “???impeachment” is going nowhere. These dumbocrats are only doing it because they “promised” their fellow stooges that they would, if put “in power”. So more cheating was done, in order to put them “in power”. President Trump is now a PRIVATE CITIZEN, and is no longer eligible for that dumb phony impeachment procedure. This is backed up by what the Constitution states. And I bet these dumbocrats will attempt to change it immediately.
IMPEACH BYE-DIM INSTEAD.
Which makes you wonder, WHAT THE HELL is in the food/water in Vermont, IF THOSE TWO are the best the state has to offer!
Since when has the Vile Marxist Communist DemocRAT Party EVER told the truth??? One LIES and all the others swear to it. If anyone thinks Leahy will be an unbiased judge of this Kangaroo Court, just look at the State he represents. The same State the continually re-elects the decrepit old Communist —–Sanders. Republican Senators should just stand up and walk out of this Debacle.
Talk about a zoo; there will be more kangaroos than in the Australian outback.
Not a chance for bias with this radical communist who hates Trump with their wicked evil orchestrated coup d’etat is still burning the country down. Their non ending coup against him as they accuse this innocent man of what THEY do and what they are guilty of.
As always, their plotting, planning, and orchestrating as they continue to spend our tax dollars to destroy Trump, our citizens who voted for him, those who support him, and to destroy our free country.
THE FIX IS IN , folks, and if you doubt it, just stay tuned. They chose this senator for a reason, because they KNEW the outcome of what he will decide……. and according to THEIR opinion, there won’t be a speck of bias or a dirty underhanded plot with unethical resolve
to nail innocent citizen Trump to the cross. They will go to any treason that it takes to destroy him, even with him out of office. That shows you how afraid of him that they are. And, the fact that they want to destroy his followers and supporters, and his voters shows how afraid of us they are. And, it shows how they will rule over our citizens, like the communist dictators that they are. North Korea and China are their patterns, but they will be worse because they will show the world how evil and absolutely lunatic stone cold mad they are.
One Question: Since Leahy is Presiding over this farce, will he be allowed to vote to, or excluded from voting?
Two years to wait for another election with cheating computer machines. The
next two years must be used to insure our election results are truly what the
American people voted, these two years will be all that stands between real
anarchy and the dissolution of the nation. Biden should be impeached along
with all elected democrats if a real election is held in two years. Dark days
ahead………William
You’re dreaming, if you think ANY election integrity measures will be even LOOKED AT, let alone implemented, between now and 2022.
” illegal Immigrants are just ” Undocumented democrat Voters . ” Why do democrats like illegal immigrants?
Democrats apparently see it as fair for two coyotes and one rabbit voting on what to eat for lunch.
They’ve always thought that way, JUST AS LONG AS THEY ARE the two coyotes…
Leahy has been known as Senator Leaky since the eighties when he was leaking what he learned as vice chair of the Intelligence Committee. He was removed. Calling Leaky nonpartisan is partisan. The trial of a former president in the Senate based on the impeachment vote in the House is not constitutional. Chief justice Roberts refused to preside because he knows that and he, and the rest of the justices, may be called to rule on that.
An unConstitutional impeachment and now an unConstitutional presiding officer. We have a Constitutional crisis.
Another well thought out impeachment. If the Democratic party had to foot the bill for these useless proceedings there wouldn’t be any or fewer. But the bill goes to the American people..
One thing for sure old nan will not implement any impeachment attempt of joe because she and the rest who are ruining this country know if harris steps up she will not be taking orders from anyone and that is not in the plans to have their present power taken from them before America is completely destroyed.