NBC News contributor Hugh Hewitt suggests Trump still run again “even if they convicted him” in Senate impeachment trial

Written by Media Matters Staff

Published

From the February 10, 2021, edition of Salem Radio Network’s The Hugh Hewitt Show

HUGH HEWITT (HOST): I didn't mention the impeachment trial yesterday, for the simple reason it's a sham, it's an unconstitutional exercise in politicization of the country and deepening the divisions. I love the fact — it's also over, it's over.

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You think he's got enough votes to be acquitted? They can pick up all six of the Republicans who don't think it's unconstitutional. They may or may not, I don't know, they may or may not. But they're not going to get the 67 votes — not to remove him, which is why it's unconstitutional, but to allegedly bar him from office — which it would not have the effect of doing, since it is a non-jurisdictional proceeding. He could run for president even if they convicted him.

Most constitutional experts say that the continued impeachment proceeding against former President Donald Trump is constitutional, for the purpose of disqualifying former public officials from ever holding future office.

If this were not so, as a bipartisan group of legal scholars explained, “then an official who betrayed the public trust and was impeached could avoid accountability simply by resigning one minute before the Senate’s final conviction vote.”

Furthermore, the House of Representatives had impeached Trump for the second time while he was still president, on January 13. While that occurred, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) refused to bring the Senate back to conduct a trial during the remaining week that he was still the majority leader, which thus resulted in Trump’s trial being pushed into President Joe Biden’s term.