Air 1 97. Resolution is adopted without objection. The motion to reconsider is laid upon the table. Nancy Pelosi yesterday thinking that gavel after they impeach the president for the second time. Brian Darling is the president of Liberty government affairs and former counsel and senior communications director for Senator Rand. Paul. He's also a veteran of the Senate, Brian Thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me on. So the president's the first one to be impeached. Not once but twice. And this is what this is, I think, well, one into it two years like back to back what does this mean? Well, it's it's tear a terrible thing for the president to have that on mark on his record. I mean, we have a president who had a great record on the economy before the coronavirus said to get three Supreme Court justices and you look at his record. Pretty good record of accomplishment for president and this is obviously going to be part of that history. Part of when we look back and say, How did Donald Trump do? Well, he did get impeached twice by the House of Representatives. Yeah, that will forever be a part of that That story. I wonder, though, if part of the story will be. Is this a turning point for Washington at all in terms of understanding what voters want? I mean, there's a reason a guy like Donald Trump gets elected in the first place and sent to Washington. Did Washington learn any lessons from the Trump presidency? Do you think I don't think so. I think we're seeing Democratic overreach again. I mean, they're trying to impeach a president. When he's going to be out of office. The Senate will not be able to conduct an actual trialing this impeachment till he's well out of office in this, Senator Tom Cotton of Oklahoma, said. This is not something contemplated by our founders. So you know Democrats inevitably, the overreach or talking about expelling members in the House and Hi. They have installed metal detectors to get into the house chamber. I mean, they're going too far. And I think some Democrats probably just want to stand down. Let it go because they know the president. Trump will not be president in a week. But isn't the main push for this isn't the real reason for this In order to prevent the president from being able to run in 2024? Didn't they put a clause into this impeachment that he would not be able to run again for public office? Should he be successfully impeached in the Senate? This goes into the Senate. That's right. But when you look at impeachment impeachment, the purpose of it is to remove a president's committed a high crime or misdemeanor. So it's it was never contemplated to be applied to private citizens, which Donald Trump will be in a week. So when you look at what happens in the Senate, they're gonna have a trial. It looks like Senator Schumer's gonna conduct a trial and at the end of that trial We'll have a vote. They needed two thirds vote to convict the president will. After that they'll get into the penalty phase and in the founders did not Aziz. Many members are going to stay. They're gonna argue process they're going to say, Look what? Look at what's going on. Right now. This is vengeance. This is a way to ban double comforter ever running for office again. But that's not what the purpose of Impeachment is to remove some of these committed a high crime or Mr Mayor. Yesterday, we see The Associated Press reporting that Mitch McConnell has not ruled out voting to convict President Trump in a Senate impeachment trial. He did say, Brian Darling, that this trial will not take place in these final days of the Trump administration and will instead have to wait until Joe Biden is inaugurated as president. McConnell clearly interested in some political positioning here. This could very much disrupt the beginning of the Biden presidency. But what do you think of McConnell, saying that he's not ruling out? Ah, conviction for President Trump. Well, it's not a good sign for where he's at where his head is that with regard to this debate, and obviously if Mitch McConnell leader, the Republican Party in Senate were to vote to bar the president from ever holding office again, that would have a big influence in the conference. Some we did see in the house that a handful 10 Republicans voted for the impeachment resolution that the House is obviously very different than the Senate when it comes to these issues, and we saw that debate over whether to block the electors from from being counted from contested states where you had in the House very strong Republican vote in the Senate not so much. You had eight members. So when you look at the Senate, the Senate would seem to be more open and more likely to hit that 67 vote threshold for a conviction. But I just don't see it happening. I just don't see Republicans going down that road because you gonna many, like Tom Cotton, who will vote who voted against Who voted against the idea that you can block collectors and also will oppose impeachment. But the question that I keep seeing over and over and over again and then you see both sides of this. Can you impeach a private citizen? President Trump will be a private citizen. That's part of our system. You know, like you go back to your your life and you're so how do they do that? How do they impeach A guy is not the president. That's the million dollar question. Is it constitutional? Is this what our founders contemplated and you're going to hear that debate play out on the Senate floor, And maybe it's even possible that this may Go to the courts. It may go to the Supreme Court. If they do do end up voting to ban Donald Trump from running for president. And then he files and he says, You know what I'm gonna run. Let's see what happened. Brian, let me ask you a deeply cynical question. How much of the Republican support for impeaching and convicting the president of the United States is based on a moral stand, or is it based on donor? Concerns. I think some of it is vengeance. I think some of it is donor concerns. I mean, you gotta remember these. These members were in the capital when it was assaulted. So many of them are very personal feelings that their space is invaded them in the Senate floor was actually invaded. By people who occupied the capital, and that clearly is angered very much so many members and the concern that their lives were actually in danger. So I think that may have an impact on this, too. I think the donor concern is a concern. Also. I like what? I have a lot of more questions for you, but what we're going to. We're going to carry over into will talkto. I'll ask you these questions on the other side. I know Vince has more questions as as well here for you, um, regarding this impeachment where we go because I hate to say this and I know everybody's gonna laugh. These are unprecedented times. Brian darling more on the impeachment with Brian Darling Coming up. It is 6 43 and.