USA 2024 Elections Thread

grarpamp grarpamp at gmail.com
Mon Jan 16 22:20:14 PST 2023


https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_app/mccarthy-says-he-would-consider-expunging-trumps-impeachments_4983803.html

https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_app/trumps-first-impeachment-shouldnt-have-ever-taken-place-rep-mullin_4381218.html
https://www.congress.gov/117/bills/hres1131/BILLS-117hres1131ih.pdf
https://www.theepochtimes.com/trump-says-jan-6-committees-charges-are-fake-but-make-him-stronger_4934674.html
https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_morningbrief/trump-congress-should-expunge-impeachment-terrible-to-rip-up-sotu-speech_3230939.html
https://www.theepochtimes.com/kevin-mccarthy-credits-trump-for-his-house-speaker-win_4969608.html

Kevin McCarthy news, the newly minted speaker may be trying to win
back the MAGA crowd, announcing on Thursday that he's open to the idea
of "expunging" one or both of former President Trump's impeachments.

When asked about the possibility of erasing the impeachments during a
Jan. 12 press conference at the Capitol, McCarthy replied that he
would “have to look” at the situation, saying, “I understand why
members would want to bring that forward.”

“Our first priority is to get our economy back on track, secure our
borders, make our streets safe again, give parents the opportunity to
have a say in their kids’ education, and actually hold government
accountable,” he added. “But I understand why individuals want to do
it, and we’d look at it.”

Trump was first impeached by the House in December 2019 over a phone
call he had with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He was
charged with abuse of power for allegedly pressuring Zelenskyy to
investigate a political opponent, and with obstruction of Congress,
but was ultimately acquitted of those charges by the Senate.

In 2021, Trump was impeached again for alleged “incitement of
insurrection” following the Jan. 6 Capitol breach. Again, he was
acquitted.
Previous Expungement Attempts

Last year, then-Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) led House Republicans’
attempts to expunge Trump’s impeachment record, introducing a
resolution to erase the former president’s 2019 impeachment in March.

“So, what we’re doing with the resolution is just simply saying, ‘Hey,
listen, Congress made a mistake,’” Mullin, now a senator, said at the
time. “‘We impeached a president under Article One, Section Two, that
shouldn’t have ever taken place.’”

In May, Mullin followed up the first bill with a second resolution to
expunge Trump’s 2021 impeachment. That bill (pdf), citing 2020
election irregularities and the impeachment’s rushed nature, held that
the impeachment process had failed to prove that the former president
had committed “high crimes and misdemeanors” or engaged in an
insurrection.

Although both of Mullin’s resolutions garnered some Republican
support, neither was ever considered by the Democrat-controlled House.
A ‘Political Hoax’

Trump, for his part, has maintained that both the impeachments and the
Jan. 6 Select Committee’s subsequent criminal referrals were simply
partisan attempts to “sideline” him and prevent him from holding
elected office again.

“The Fake charges made by the highly partisan Unselect Committee of
January 6th have already been submitted, prosecuted, and tried in the
form of Impeachment Hoax # 2,” the former president noted on Dec. 19
after the committee referred him to the Justice Department for
prosecution.

In February 2020, after his first acquittal by the Senate, Trump was
asked by reporters about the potential of a future expungement.

“That’s a very good question,” he said. “Should they expunge the
impeachment in the House? They should because it was a hoax. It was a
total political hoax.”

At the time, it was McCarthy who floated the idea, vowing to erase the
impeachment if the Republican Party regained control of the House and
he became speaker.

“I don’t think it should stay on the books,” McCarthy said.

Despite opposition from several Trump-aligned Republicans, McCarthy
achieved his goal of becoming speaker of the House—with Trump’s
backing—last week.

After a contentious week of intraparty negotiations, McCarthy secured
the speakership in the 15th vote, attributing the victory to the
former president’s support.

“I do want to especially thank President Trump,” he told reporters on
Jan. 7. “I don’t think anybody should doubt his influence. He was with
me from the beginning.”


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