Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer says the ball was in Chief Justice John Roberts’s court when he was offered and declined the chance to preside over former President Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial.
The New York Democrat told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow in an interview that aired Monday evening that Roberts is not constitutionally required to preside over the proceedings given the fact that Trump is no longer in office.
“The Constitution says the chief justice presides for a sitting president,” Schumer said. “So it was up to John Roberts whether he wanted to preside with a president who’s no longer sitting, Trump, and he doesn’t want to do it.”
The Senate majority leader went on to explain the logic behind the selection of Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont, as the presiding officer.
“So traditionally what has happened is then the next in line is the [Senate president pro tempore]. That’s the most senior senator on the majority side, and that’s Sen. Leahy, who’s a very experienced man and a very fair man,” Schumer explained.
When pressed by Maddow, the New York Democrat confirmed that Leahy will, in fact, still be permitted to vote on the results of the trial despite also serving as an impartial arbiter during the proceedings.
Schumer’s comments about Trump’s foregone status as an officeholder allude to a question percolating among many Republicans: Can the Senate convict a former president on impeachment articles? Some argue that it is unconstitutional.
“The Founders designed the impeachment process as a way to remove officeholders from public office — not an inquest against private citizens. The Constitution presupposes an office from which an impeached officeholder can be removed,” said Sen. Tom Cotton, a Trump ally who opposed the congressional protest that preceded the Jan. 6 Capitol Hill siege.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, argued that the ramifications of voting to convict Trump would be detrimental for the country.
“To my Republican colleagues, let’s stand up for the idea that post-presidential impeachments are bad for the presidency, bad for the country, and if we go along with it as Republicans, we will destroy the Republican Party,” he said. “If we do it as a Senate, I think, over time, we will destroy the presidency.”
Trump’s second impeachment trial is set to begin on Feb. 9. A two-thirds vote is needed in the Senate to convict. The former president was previously impeached on two Ukraine-related charges in late 2019 before he was acquitted in the GOP-majority Senate.
Representatives for the Supreme Court did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
