Pelosi’s ultimatum.

We’re on course for Impeachment 2.0.

Speaker Pelosi has given Vice President Pence a 24 hour ultimatum to trigger the 25th Amendment, removing Trump from office, or the impeachment process begins. Pelosi has made the right call.

The onus is now on Pence. If he and his Republican colleagues are so worried about unity and the division an impeachment would inevitably trigger, then let’s see him step up, use the instrument available to him, and remove a despot from power before he can cause more damage. If not, in the interests of accountability and justice, impeachment must go ahead, for better or for worse.

There is a serious risk of throttling the Biden administration before it’s even out of the womb, and derailing any effort at progressive law-making. For this reason, a longer timetable, stretching beyond Biden’s first 100 days, would be preferable for nuts and bolts of impeachment. Impeachment was never going to rid us of Trump before Jan 20th, but it will hold him responsible for what he’s done.

The first impeachment was a “he said” “she said” affair, a score-settling effort by the national security establishment to dislodge the President, and a wholly partisan affair, that strengthened Trump’s hand politically. This time, no matter the political optics, it’s clear cut, it’s set, and it’s wholly justifiable. Only, problem, it still likely won’t work.

The thing we must hope for from this is Trump being barred from holding office again. That’s the best case scenario. Let’s lay out the case, let it all simmer down, and hope Republicans see sense for the conviction vote later this year.