On the recordMarch 1, 2021
I would like to submit this statement for the record regarding the impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump. The statement reflects my thoughts on this complicated constitutional matter and its implications for future impeachments. In 1787, the Articles of Confederation were failing, and our young Nation was struggling to address the many challenges it was being confronted with in its infancy. A collection of independent States, the newly formed country experienced much difficulty with the regulation of trade and commerce, foreign affairs, and other basic domestic civil issues. With calls for disunion multiplying, delegates to the Constitutional Convention met to deliberate and forge a new government and with it an Executive to help centralize the powers necessary to form a strong republic. Having just shed the bonds of the British Monarchy and its infringements upon the liberties the delegates so desperately wanted to protect, there was much skepticism toward this idea. In order to abate these concerns, the Constitution's Framers provided for a means of removing an Executive, a Presidential impeachment.…
