Maxwell School News and Commentary

"One of the things to bear in mind about the procedure in the Senate is that there’s very little in the way of a legal road map. The Constitution says simply that the Senate should have the sole power to trial an impeachment," says William C. Banks, professor emeritus of public administration and international affairs.

"Since Putin cannot remain as president after 2024 under the current rules, he needs to change the rules. This will potentially allow him to remain the dominant political actor even if he leaves the presidency," says Professor of Political Science Brian Taylor.

Grant Reeher, professor of political science and director of the Campbell Public Affairs Institute, says that Senator Warren and Senator Sanders "are struggling for the same general bloc of Democratic voters, and Biden is offering an alternative to both of them—so it’s not like someone might abandon Sanders because of this conflict and then go to Biden." 

"Impeachment of a U.S. president is an unusual circumstance," says Tom Keck, Michael O. Sawyer Chair of Constitutional Law and Politics. "(The chief justice) is there to oversee a trial, which is something that should be well within his comfort zone. But it's a trial conducted by elected partisan officials. It's not a court, the U.S. Senate." 

Brian Taylor, professor and chair of political science, says "he's [Russian president Vladimir Putin] leaving the presidency, but he’s almost certainly going to take some other position and try and stay on."

"The most important threat, in my view, of another Trump presidency is the unpredictability and uncertainty," says Áron Tóbiás, assistant professor of economics. "You can never know what happens next: what appears on Twitter, or what kind of trade policy is made."

"It solidifes their majority, and puts in place this idea that New York is just blue, full stop," says Grant Reeher, professor of political science. "And it seems like it's going to be really tough for Republicans to make a real run at the governor's seat, given what we've seen in recent elections." 

"If any Senate Republicans harbor doubts about [Mitch] McConnell’s position, then, recalling their oath to 'support and defend the Constitution,' they must ask themselves: Did the framers of the Constitution intend senators to be impartial jurors in impeachment trials?," writes Dana Radcliffe, adjunct professor of public administration and international affairs.

"We borrowed a lot of money to give tax cuts to big corporations and rich people in not the most effective way," says Leonard Burman, Paul Volcker Chair in Behavioral Economics. "The real concern is the growing debt and the possibility that interest rates won’t stay low forever—and I don’t think they will."