US politics live updates: Democrats promise Donald Trump’s impeachment trial is coming ‘soon’ as Joe Biden readies executive order blitz

Some early questions

Hillary Clinton tweeted a while ago she was in favour of abolishing the Electoral College and just using the popular vote, as every other elected position does. Any chance of this ever happening? Would reforming the election process be steps towards restoring confidence in the voting process?

-Lege Feliciter

The electoral college is laid out in the constitution, which means it’d take a constitutional amendment to get rid of it. And doing some amending of the constitution is not an easy thing. For a start, there needs to a two-thirds majority vote in both chambers of Congress. Then three-quarters of the states need to ratify it.

It’s a process that can take years and requires a huge amount of bipartisanship — something in short supply in Washington DC for the past decade.

Before the elections, I asked experts what it might take to change a different part of the US electoral system — non-compulsory voting. Much of what they said applies to the electoral college too. You can see what they said in the piece right here.

Hi Peter
Can Trump pardon himself re the impeachment plus can he ‘blanket’ pardon those involved in the riots – before he leaves office?

-PD

On question one — nope. The president can’t pardon themselves from impeachment proceedings. On question two — yep. Trump has the power to blanket pardon those involved in the attack on the Capitol Building.

Hi Peter, what impact do you think Mitch McConnell saying “vote with your conscience” will have?

-Have they seen the light?

Honestly, it could be everything or nothing. I’ve said this before, but if Mitch McConnell decides to vote to convict Donald Trump, that’ll most likely be it. Enough Republicans would follow to hit the 67 vote threshold required to convict.

But of course, McConnell could still do the exact opposite and vote against conviction. That’d mean only a handful of Republicans could vote to convict, and there wouldn’t be a two-thirds majority.

Only McConnell knows how he plans to vote right now. We’re all just left waiting and guessing until he says otherwise.