Northwestern professors available to comment on start of impeachment trial
‘Republicans have a chance to take the first step toward remaking their image and becoming more competitive in national elections,’ expert says.
EVANSTON, Ill. --- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has confirmed that the article of impeachment against Donald Trump will be sent to the Senate on Monday, Jan. 25, signaling the start of a trial.
Northwestern University professors from political science and the Pritzker School of Law are available to comment on how the trial might proceed and impact a President who is no longer in office.
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Constitutional law:
Ronald Allen is the John Henry Wigmore Professor of Law and a constitutional and criminal law expert. He can be reached at rjallen@law.northwestern.edu.
Juliet Sorensen is a clinical professor of law and executive director of Injustice Watch. From 2003-2010, Sorensen was an assistant U.S. attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago, focusing on fraud and public corruption.
She can be reached at j-sorensen@law.northwestern.edu.
Political science:
Alvin Tillery is an associate professor of political science and director of the Center for the Study of Diversity and Democracy at Northwestern. His research and teaching interests are in the fields of American politics and political theory. His research in American politics focuses on American political development, racial and ethnic politics and media and politics. He can be reached at alvin.tillery@northwestern.edu.
Quote from Professor Tillery
“When Speaker Pelosi transfers the article of impeachment for former President Donald J. Trump on Monday, it will cement his ignominious legacy as the only president in U.S. history to be twice impeached by Congress. Once the transfer happens, all eyes should shift to the behavior of Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and his Republican caucus. In the three weeks since the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, we have received mixed signals from Senate Republicans about impeachment. While some members, like Leader McConnell himself, have clearly communicated that they do believe that Mr. Trump is culpable for the violence that took place on Jan. 6, most Republican members have either remained silent or offered tepid defenses of Mr. Trump. This division likely signals that there are again not enough votes to convict him. This will create a very interesting dynamic for the Republican Party because a failure to convict will mean that Mr. Trump will be free to run for office again in 2024 and that he will remain the dominant figure in Republican politics for the next four years. This would be a grave political miscalculation for a party that has lost the popular vote in seven of the last eight presidential elections and turned Georgia blue in the 2020 election.
“In short, this impeachment trial not only offers the chance for Republicans to unify the country by punishing Mr. Trump for crimes that we all saw and heard him commit during this electoral cycle, but it also gives them the chance to take the first step toward remaking their image and becoming more competitive in national elections.”
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