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[00:00.000 --> 00:06.600]  I'm Dave Champion. A few days ago, the House impeached Donald Trump for the
[00:06.600 --> 00:11.200]  second time. There now seems to be a lot of consternation, a lot of chatter on the
[00:11.200 --> 00:18.040]  internet about whether the Senate can actually hold the trial after Trump has
[00:18.040 --> 00:22.040]  left office on January 20th.
[00:22.040 --> 00:33.080]  As you're probably aware, the primary goal of impeaching some executive branch
[00:33.080 --> 00:36.960]  official, doesn't have to be the president or a judge, is to make sure that
[00:36.960 --> 00:43.400]  that person is removed from office. So you might ask yourself, okay, so if Trump
[00:43.400 --> 00:48.760]  is going to be out of office, no longer the president, as of noon on January 20th,
[00:48.760 --> 00:53.540]  what would be the purpose of the Senate moving forward with the trial? First of
[00:53.540 --> 00:58.280]  all, I want to say that because the articles of impeachment were voted
[00:58.280 --> 01:04.420]  into existence by the House, the Senate is free to hold that trial whenever it
[01:04.420 --> 01:09.240]  wants to. There is no sort of nullity because Trump leaves office at the Senate
[01:09.240 --> 01:12.120]  then cannot proceed with the trial. There's a lot of people saying that on
[01:12.120 --> 01:17.160]  social media that is 100% non-factual. With the primary goal of impeachment and
[01:17.160 --> 01:21.440]  conviction to remove an official from office, if Donald Trump has already left
[01:21.440 --> 01:25.400]  the presidency, why would the Senate want to move forward with potentially
[01:25.400 --> 01:32.480]  convicting Donald Trump after he's gone? If Donald Trump is convicted, which is a
[01:32.480 --> 01:40.920]  big if, right? If he's convicted, then there can be another vote called the
[01:40.920 --> 01:47.200]  disqualification vote. That is not two-thirds. That is a simple majority. So
[01:47.200 --> 01:50.840]  if the Senate chooses to hold that disqualification vote, which I imagine if
[01:50.840 --> 01:54.920]  they're going to move forward with the trial at all, and if they get a
[01:54.920 --> 01:58.080]  conviction, they absolutely would move forward with a disqualification vote.
[01:58.080 --> 02:02.160]  That would seem to be the only reason to go through the trial would be to get to
[02:02.160 --> 02:09.520]  the disqualification vote. So if 51% of the Senate were to vote to disqualify
[02:09.520 --> 02:14.880]  Donald Trump, he could then hold no office in the United States ever again
[02:14.880 --> 02:20.320]  in the future. Now it's interesting because it is said by those supposedly
[02:20.320 --> 02:24.560]  in the know, those close to Mitch McConnell, that Mitch McConnell, as you
[02:24.560 --> 02:31.320]  know, who is the senior Republican in the Senate, is said to favor that. In other
[02:31.320 --> 02:36.320]  words, Mitch McConnell wants the Senate to hold a trial. He wants Donald Trump to
[02:36.320 --> 02:40.360]  be convicted, and then he wants to hold a disqualification vote, and he wants to
[02:40.360 --> 02:45.600]  make sure that the Senate votes 51% at least to disqualify Donald Trump. And the
[02:45.600 --> 02:51.560]  story is that McConnell wants that because then Donald Trump would never be
[02:51.560 --> 02:55.480]  a mean, according to Mitch McConnell, not according to Dave Champion, then Donald
[02:55.480 --> 03:00.440]  Trump would never be meaningful in the Republican Party ever again. And
[03:00.440 --> 03:05.040]  apparently that's what Mitch McConnell is after. Now is that true? I don't know.
[03:05.040 --> 03:08.880]  It's being reported by enough sources that I tend to think it is true, but
[03:08.880 --> 03:14.280]  Mitch and I haven't talked. But I just want to let you know, yes, the Senate can
[03:14.280 --> 03:18.640]  go ahead with the trial. I want to let you know what seemingly, at least in my
[03:18.640 --> 03:23.640]  estimation, is the only reason to move ahead and perhaps get a conviction, is to
[03:23.640 --> 03:28.840]  reach the disqualification vote. And to let you know that this is not just
[03:28.840 --> 03:35.880]  Democrat-driven, it seems that there are at least some Senate Republicans that
[03:35.880 --> 03:41.640]  want to disqualify Trump so he is forever no longer a part of the element
[03:41.640 --> 03:48.760]  of the Republican Party that can run for office. Apparently that is not desired by
[03:48.760 --> 03:53.880]  the mainstream Republicans moving forward.