There are roughly seven months remaining in the current Congress, and the Republican majorities in the House and Senate still have an opportunity to try to govern and pass worthwhile legislation that the American public might like.
As is too often the case, GOP leaders’ focus apparently lies elsewhere. The Wall Street Journal reported:
President Trump and his allies have discussed pushing lawmakers to pass a resolution aimed at voiding his first-term impeachments, according to people familiar with the matter.
The resolution would allow Trump to claim a symbolic victory on a matter that has dogged him since his first term, part of a broader effort to burnish his presidential legacy. It would have little legal significance, however, because the Constitution provides no procedure for undoing an impeachment, according to experts.
This is not simply a matter of backroom chatter and whispers from Capitol Hill hallways. Trump explicitly told the Journal, in reference to the efforts to “expunge” the record, “It should be done because I did nothing wrong.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson similarly told the newspaper that he believes the effort “makes a lot of sense.” The Louisiana Republican, who called the president’s impeachments a “sham” and “a hyperpartisan attack job,” added, “It is a priority and something that Congress should make right.”
Before we dig in on what might actually happen with this effort, it’s important to understand how we arrived at this point.
On February 5, 2020, Trump’s first impeachment trial concluded in the Senate. On February 7, 2020, the president first broached the subject of trying to “expunge” the record, calling the effort to hold him accountable a “hoax.”
His message resonated with some of his allies. Indeed, then-Rep. Markwayne Mullin — years before the Oklahoma Republican moved up to the Senate, and more recently, the White House Cabinet — introduced a resolution that would’ve declared Trump’s first impeachment as “expunged.” Soon after, Mullin also took aim at Trump’s second impeachment, and that effort gained the support of, among others, Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, who made some amazingly misguided arguments in support of the idea.
The effort was largely ignored by the then-Democratic majority in the House, but as 2023 got underway, then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said he was willing to take a look at the idea, adding, “I would understand why members would want to bring that forward.”