‘The framers’ worst nightmare come to life’

Post Reports

The Washington Post

Daily News, Politics, News

4.4 • 5.1K Ratings

🗓️ 9 February 2021

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The impeachment trial begins with an argument about whether it is constitutional in the first place. And, how the Keystone XL pipeline became a political shorthand for climate policy.

On the first day of former president Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial, his attorneys are asking: Can a president even be impeached after he has left office? Reporter Ann E. Marimow explains the constitutional questions at play.

President Biden has said that addressing climate change is one of his foremost priorities as president. And since his first day in office, he has taken aim at controversial oil and gas policies, such as the previous administration’s support of the divisive Keystone XL pipeline. Senior national affairs reporter Juliet Eilperin on the future of pipelines in the United States.

As the impeachment trial continues this week, consider going back to listen to our deep-dive into the events at the Capitol on Jan. 6. That episode gives a moment-by-moment breakdown of the riot, with voices you may not have heard before, and insight into the events at the center of the impeachment trial. That episode of Post Reports is called “Four Hours of Insurrection,” and you can find it here or wherever you get your podcasts.

For the latest impeachment news, check out washingtonpost.com or The Daily 202’s Big Idea, a morning news briefing from The Washington Post.

If you value the journalism you hear every weekday in this podcast, consider subscribing to The Post. You can find a special offer just for our listeners at postreports.com/offer.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From the newsroom of the Washington Post, Washington Post is Colby.
0:11.4	Hi, Stephanie McCreement from the Washington Post.
0:14.2	This is Post Reports.
0:15.8	I'm Martine Powers.
0:19.8	It's Tuesday, February 9.
0:24.5	Today the constitutional battle over impeaching an ex-president and how the Keystone XL pipeline
0:31.0	became a political shorthand for climate policy.
0:34.8	Today was the first day of Donald Trump's second impeachment trial in the Senate.
0:48.3	And the Senate will convene as a court of impeachment.
0:52.7	And though Trump is facing the charge of incitement of insurrection, the central question
0:57.4	that faced the Senate on Tuesday was not really about this charge.
1:02.0	It was about whether it's actually constitutional to be impeaching Trump at all.
1:06.4	The steam members of the Senate going forward with this impeachment trial of a former president
1:11.5	of the United States is unconstitutional for reasons we have set out in our brief,
1:17.3	some of which we'll focus on here.
1:19.5	That is a matter of policy, it is wrong, as wrong can be for all of us as a nation.
1:26.0	Trump's lawyers and many Republicans in the Senate are arguing that you can't impeach
1:31.0	a president if they are no longer president.
1:34.5	This is supposed to be the ultimate safety valve, the last thing that happens.
1:40.0	The most rare treatment.
1:48.9	So the slippery slope principle will have taken hold if we continue to go forward with
1:54.0	what is happening today and scheduled to happen later this week.
	...

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