Good. Now it's up to the Senate to make the right call, and prevent Trump from ever holding public office again.
I've been reading that the "can't hold office again" is disputed among various constitutional scholars, in terms of both the procedure, as well as whether or not it could pass supreme court rulings (as it would almost certainly be challenged)
Explainer: Can lawmakers use impeachment to bar Trump from holding office again?
Would impeachment prevent Trump from seeking office in the future? It’s complicated.
The particular section they're trying to invoke (Section 3 of the 14th amendment), hasn't ever been used against a president...and in fact, has only been used once since the reconstruction era, and was largely included for a very specific scenario within the reconstruction era, when they were trying to limit the influence of former members of the confederacy.
“No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.”
The dangerous part about using this as a means to "smite one's enemies", is that it could end up setting a bad precedent.
Invoking this particular section only requires a simple majority in both houses, and doesn't have to even be a person who's currently holding an office.
Where it becomes particularly dangerous, when one considers the implication that if it becomes "too easy" to invoke this to "get someone out of the way", you can basically sabotage future elections... and as soon as one party has a majority in both houses, they can simply keep invoking it to remove opposing candidates so that they never lose their seats, and that they basically do a hail mary play if it looks like their candidate isn't going to win a presidential election.
For instance
Party A has 51% of the senate and the house.
Any time someone from Party B challenges them for any of their seats, they can simply toss out the accusation, and as long as their fellow party members get on board with the plan and pass it with a simple majority, their opposing candidate is officially disqualified.
It's one of those measures that sounds tempting...but I would say tread carefully, because if it becomes to easy/convenient to invoke, that's how a nation ends up with one-party rule.
All it would take is the party with party with the current majority to redefine what "give comfort to the enemies of the united states" means in their own favor, and then just start eliminating every potential opposition that comes their way by invoking it.
