6 December 2019 — 1527 mst
A civics lesson for the MT GOP & Don K.
If Congress kicks Trump out of the White House,
would Hillary Clinton become President?
Don Kaltschmidt
No. Removing a President through the impeachment process does not overturn an election. In fact, the question would be absurd were not Republicans making arguments inviting voters to conclude that impeachment equals an election reversal.
Yesterday, the Montana Republican Party issued a statement conflating impeachment with election reversal:
HELENA — Montana Republican Party Chairman Don “K” Kaltschmidt today released the following statement after Nancy Pelosi’s announcement that House Democrats will continue their efforts to nullify the 2016 Presidential election:
“The Democrats’ obsession with removing President Trump from office by any means necessary is precisely why we need to elect a Conservative to Montana’s Congressional seat and retire Nancy Pelosi as Speaker” said Chairman Don “K” Katlschmidt. “Rather than kowtowing to the Radical Left and trying to negate the 63 million votes that elected the President, Democrats should join their Republican colleagues in rejecting this manufactured witch-hunt and get to work on issues that will actually better the lives of everyday Americans.”
The truth, of course, is that were Trump impeached and convicted, the results of the 2016 election would stand: Vice President Mike Pence would become President. Republican Party control of the Presidency would continue uninterrupted. The 63 million votes that resulted in a 304 to 232 Electoral College win for the Republican ticket would stand (seven electoral votes were cast for other people).
That’s not nullification of an election — nor is “nullify,” which means “null and void” — the right word to describe the reversal of an election. When an election is nullified, a new election must be held. That’s what happened recently in North Carolina’s Ninth Congressional District, after that state’s election board concluded that the 2018 Republican candidate’s operatives committed election fraud.
Whether an election for President could be nullified and a new election ordered is dubious, as the Constitution does not grant that power to Congress, the Electoral College, or the U.S. Supreme Court. That option, however, which is somewhat analogous to a parliament’s vote of no confidence requiring a new election, might be of value, and we should seriously consider adding it to the Constitution.
What does need to be nullified is the MT GOP’s and Kaltschmidt’s reckless, disinformative, and near hysterical, defense of a President who thinks he can be king. Don K. and his party are entitled to their own opinions, wrong and incendiary through they are, but, as Sen. Moynihan observed, they are not entitled to their own facts. The facts exist independently of partisan leanings — and the fact that impeachment does not nullify an election is not disputable by intellectually honest Americans.