Byron York’s Daily Memo: The Democrats’ weird, time capsule article of impeachment

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THE DEMOCRATS’ WEIRD, TIME CAPSULE ARTICLE OF IMPEACHMENT. A lot has changed in the last two weeks. President Donald Trump has become former President Donald Trump. President-elect Joe Biden

has become President Joe Biden. The former president has moved to Florida. The new president, in the White House, has begun to dismantle many of the executive actions of his predecessor.

And yet, on Monday evening, several members of the House of Representatives delivered to the Senate an article of impeachment that reads as if Trump were still president. It starts off like

this:

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That was just the beginning. The first paragraph of the article reads, “Resolved, That Donald John Trump, President of the United States…” The next paragraph says the same thing. The

paragraph after that quotes the Constitution saying that the President of the United States “shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other

high crimes and misdemeanors.”

The next few paragraphs detail conduct by Trump that occurred in early January, when he was indeed president. (The article of impeachment was passed on January 13.) And then, another step

back in time when the article says, “Wherefore, Donald John Trump, by such conduct, has demonstrated that he will remain a threat to national security, democracy, and the Constitution if

allowed to remain in office…”

If allowed to remain in office? Donald John Trump is no longer in office. You can Google it.

At the very end of the article, the House says, “Donald John Trump thus warrants impeachment and trial, removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor,

trust, or profit under the United States.”

Removal from office? There they go again. It is only in the final clause — the assertion that Trump should not be allowed to hold any federal office in the future — that Democrats get to the

real purpose of the impeachment trial.

That’s the only point of the trial, from the Democratic perspective. Democrats say it is critical to hold Trump “accountable,” though whether that has any meaning at all depends on one’s

opinion of whether Trump would ever run for federal office again and, if he did, whether he would win.

Assuming that Trump would have no interest in any federal office below that of president, he will be 78 in 2024, meaning that, if elected, he would serve until age 82. That is too old to

begin a presidential term. Yes, it is the age of President Biden as he begins his term, but he is also too old to be president. And that is before considering whether Trump, the object of

unprecedented partisan attacks during his presidency, would be able to win. Or, most importantly, whether he would be interested in running in the first place.

So the House’s impeachment article is a time capsule — the product of a time, long, long ago, when Donald John Trump was President of the United States. The very text of the article tees up

the argument over whether it is constitutional for the Senate to try a former president, which I wrote about yesterday. Senate Republicans increasingly believe it is not constitutional, and

although they do not have the votes to prevail in a partisan showdown, the issue will be aired during the trial. It might even find its way to court.

In any event, a precedent-setting impeachment trial of a former president could be the concluding episode of the Democrats’ obsession with removing Trump from office — an obsession that

began before he took office, continued through his entire four-year term, and is now in its final act after he left office.

For a deeper dive into many of the topics covered in the Daily Memo, please listen to my podcast, The Byron York Show — available on the Ricochet Audio Network and everywhere else podcasts

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