President Trump impeached again. What happens next?
Caller question: The right to overthrow a government?
The majority of the U.S. House voted Wednesday to impeach President Donald Trump for a second time — making him the first U.S. president to be impeached twice.
The vote was affirmed by every Democratic member and 10 Republicans. There were 197 Republicans who voted against impeachment, including all four of Minnesota’s GOP members.
This unprecedented vote came exactly one week after lawmakers were forced to evacuate their proceedings to affirm the votes of the November election when a throng of armed pro-Trump rioters descended on the Capitol.
Five people died as a result of the attack. Thousands of troops have already arrived in Washington and the National Guard says they’ll have 20,000 troops in D.C. for President-elect Biden’s inauguration.
Outgoing Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has hinted that he might vote in favor of impeaching the President, but has said that a trial in the Senate won’t start until after inauguration.
Thursday, a historian and a politician spoke with MPR News host Kerri Miller about the events leading up to this moment and what is likely to happen next.
Caller question: The right to overthrow a government?
A caller who identified as a pro-Trump independent that didn’t agree with the actions of the mob at the capitol, asked if there was a constitutional right to overthrow a “tyrannical government.”
Jeffrey Engel, founding director of the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University, said while the Declaration of Independence notes the peoples right to object to a tyrannical government, the U.S. Constitution does not grant a right to overthrow the government formed by the founding document.
“If people — God forbid — want to actually have a revolution, they need to recognize that they can no longer carry the American flag. They can no longer call themselves citizens of the United States of America,” Engel said.
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An excerpt of the question and response from the guests can be found below.
Guests:
Jeffrey Engel is founding director of the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University and co-author of “Impeachment: An American History.” He also co-hosts a podcast called “The Past, The Promise, The Presidency.”
Khalilah Brown-Dean is associate professor of political science at Quinnipiac University and host of Disrupted on Connecticut Public Radio.
To listen to the full conversation you can use the audio player at the top of the page.
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