A Canada-U.S. relations expert says the impeachment process is not going to remove Donald Trump from office.
There is an impeachment vote in the U-S House of Representatives Wednesday. It is the first time in U.S. history a President has faced impeachment twice.
Don Abelson, Director of the Brian Mulroney Institute of Government at Saint Francis Xavier University says with a Democratic majority in the House, the vote will almost certainly succeed, but adds there simply is not time for the impeachment process to finish before Joe Biden is inaugurated.
Abelson says the timeline doesn’t mean it is not important.
“People need to be held to account,” he says. “Whether you’re a president or you’re a rioter you must held to account.”
Abelson says the Senate is not set to reconvene until Jan. 19, only one day before Biden takes over the Presidency.
He says a successful impeachment vote means the Senate will become a court of law, and Senators will be sworn in as jurors to decide on the criminality of Trump’s actions around the Jan. 6 rioting at the U.S. Capitol.
Abelson says even if a Senate trial starts that day, it will take months to navigate the criminal proceedings, adding one of the goals now is to use a conviction to stop Trump from running again.
“Despite the fact that he’ll no longer be President, there are still measures the Senate can take well after he’s left office.”
He says, if Trump is convicted, the Senate could then restrict him from ever running for public office again.
Abelson says, despite a Democratic majority in the senate, it is unclear if the trial will end in a conviction.
He says that is because two-thirds of the Senate must vote to convict, and that would require 17 Republicans to vote in favour of a conviction.
