Thread by @Zathras3

We can look at the argument @ThePlumLineGS makes here from a different, more institutional standpoint. What took place on January 6 was a physical attack on the national legislature, incited by the executive. What recourse does the former have in such a case? [thread]

https://twitter.com/theplumlinegs/status/1359172608181366792

The majority Republican position, as of now, is that the legislature — Congress — has no recourse. The attack on Congress was incited; it was made; and Congress must simply accept it. Impeachment cannot be a remedy, because the President is no longer in office.

Little effort is required to understand the absurdity of this position, from the standpoint of Congress as an institution. As @ThePlumLineGS makes clear, the point of the attack was to be the culmination of the President’s campaign to stay in power — in effect, to be a coup.

The coup having failed, most Republicans in Congress now take the position that this should be the end. Five people died on January 6, but logically the Republican position would be the same if 500 had died, including members of Congress and Senators.

This view, should it prevail in the Senate’s impeachment trial, would set a precedent. Any future President tempted to extend his tenure by physical pressure on Congress would know he could do so with impunity, even if the pressure failed.

Incidentally, or not, pressure on Congress did not stop on January 6. Republican Senators know that Trump has fanatical admirers at large in the country today: many of them heavily armed, some of them likely to be enraged at perceived betrayal of their leader & idol.

I do not mean to discount or minimize the fear Republican Senators may well feel as this trial begins. A vote to convict Trump might conceivably put them in physical danger, not merely jeopardize their political position.

Yet, again, for the Senate to yield to pressure of this kind would tell future Presidents that institutional checks on them are weak, and can be attacked with impunity. Such a precedent would be undesirable.

Now, Republican Senators may not care. Every one of them, remember (with the partial exception of @SenatorRomney) has already voted to hold then-President Trump above the law, in the first impeachment trial a year ago.

The great majority of them, from @LeaderMcConnell on down, have acted for the last four years less as Senators than as the President’s subordinates, courtiers, subjects. The institutional standpoint discussed here may mean little to them. It may not register at all.

All I’m saying is that the Senate can rule this month that a President will be sanctioned for inciting a physical attack on Congress, or that he may do so with impunity. There are no other choices available to it. [end]