Did Sally Yates just make Paul Ryan our next President? Here’s how to stop it.
In testifying to the Senate last week, former deputy attorney general Sally Yates disclosed information that not only implicated Michael Flynn in the developing Trump-Russia scandal, but also Vice-President Mike Pence. As a result, if Trump is forced out of office, Pence is likely to go with him, and the next man to replace them is House Speaker Paul Ryan.
The elevation of Paul Ryan to the presidency would be as great a disaster for the future of the United States as the election of Donald Trump, especially because it would be due to Russian subversion of the U.S. political system, and a conspiracy that taints most Republican Party leaders and even their media figures. However, the Democrats can prevent this by adopting a simple strategy that I will describe.
The reason why Paul Ryan is likely to become president is that, under the Presidential Succession Act of 1947, if Trump and Pence are out of the picture, then, the next person who becomes president is the Speaker of the House. Because the Republicans control the House, that man is Paul Ryan (R-WI).
At least so far, Paul Ryan has escaped suspicion for being part of, or even aware of, the Trump-Russia conspiracy. Therefore, the change of presidents would stop with him.
If the continued presence of Trump or Pence appeared likely to affect the 2018 House and Senate elections, voters would probably see the replacement of these two men with Ryan as effectively “cleansing” the White House of scandal.
With the typical Republican-Mainstream Media whitewash treatment, the elevation of Ryan as president could spare his party from the kind of disaster that befell it in the 1974 elections after Watergate, when the Democrats gained 43 seats in Congress, three U.S. Senate positions, and even four governorships changed parties. In 1976, the Democrats turned out another Republican congressman, and won the presidency.
Moreover, if Ryan began his presidency in 2017 or early 2018, he would have ample time to establish a strong position to achieve reelection in 2020.
Although Paul Ryan is nowhere near as charismatic or mediagenic as Trump, he is at least as ambitious as the big city huckster. Moreover, few Republican leaders have devoted so much effort on fashioning a comprehensive Ayn Rand-ish program as the 2012 Republican nominee for vice-president. Trump, after all, came to the president with no clear vision as to what he wanted to achieve; Ryan has devoted most of his life to doing just that.
In other words, Ryan would betray us to a Russian as eagerly as Trump; not Vladimir Putin, but Ayn Rand.
Fortunately, Senate Democrats can help prevent Paul Ryan from becoming president by one simple expedient: Refusing to convict either Trump or Pence after the House votes to impeach them unless Republicans agree to two things necessary to effectively reverse the results of the 2016 election: 1) allow Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, or another leading Democrat to complete Trump’s term as president, and 2) appoint Merrick Garland to the U.S. Supreme Court. The process for achieving these results is somewhat complex, but the circumstances justify this result, as I will explain soon.
Unless the Republicans agree to these two things, the Democrats would be better off refusing to supply the necessary Senate votes to actually remove either man, or even voting to impeach them in the House.
The process for removing a president is well-settled. The House of Representatives approves a resolution to impeach the president by a simple majority, or 218 members of Congress. So far, Bill Clinton, and 19th century president Andrew Johnson are the only presidents impeached by the House.
However, as illustrated by the fact that Andrew Johnson and Clinton completed their terms, a president is not automatically removed from office after the House votes for their impeachment. By Article I, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution, the president is removed from office by a two-thirds vote of the U.S. Senate, or 67 Senators.
Currently, there are only 52 Republican members of the U.S. Senate. Therefore, no president or vice-president can be involuntarily removed from office unless at least 15 Democrats and/or independent senators (including Bernie Sanders (I-VT)) vote for removal of the current president and/or vice-president. By refusing to vote with the Republican majority, the Democrats can prevent the GOP from cleaning up the White House before the 2018 elections.
If Republicans cannot remove either Trump or Pence involuntarily, they will have to convince the two to resign their office, the way Republicans persuaded Richard Nixon to surrender his office in 1974. Although Pence would probably sacrifice himself to help his party, Trump is probably holding onto power precisely to avoid facing prosecution for his crimes. Indeed, recent news reports indicate that Trump has already been indicted for conspiracy with Russian mobsters, but it has been sealed to avoid a constitutional crisis between the Executive Branch and federal prosecutors. In short, Trump could face immediate arrest and a humiliating perp-walk right after he left office.
The only way Trump could avoid prosecution for his crimes would be if the new president pardoned him. Given that Trump would probably be arrested the minute he is not president, he would refuse to resign unless he was promised a full pardon by the new president, just as Gerald Ford pardoned Nixon a month after he resigned for any crimes he may have committed during his presidency. Since Ryan is eager to become president, he would readily grant Trump the full pardon that the current chief executive would demand as his price for leaving office.
That pardon would immediately become a major opportunity for Democrats in the 2018 elections, much as the Nixon pardon affected the 1974 and 1976 results.
Moreover, Republican distaste for Trump is unlikely to become so universal that some GOP leaders and supporters will not be incensed against Republicans who pressure Trump to resign. Even now, Trump has a ridiculous 84% job approval rating among Republican voters. Yet Ryan is so eager to become president, he would not hesitate long before pressuring, and/or bribing, Trump to give up his office.
In short, the Democrats can only benefit by forcing Trump to resign rather than helping Republicans remove him involuntarily. With a little luck and a lot of determination, the Democrats can face a Republican party more divided against itself than ever before. Taking advantage of the titanic ambition of Paul Ryan is the key to rescuing the nation from Trump and his Russian-infiltrated cronies.
