On January 7th, 1999 the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton began.
It was the third time in the history of the United States that a President was a part
of impeachment proceedings.
But besides the potential to be removed from the presidency, many people, then and now,
are confused as to the actual meaning of the term.
With calls to impeach President Obama coming from conservatives for the entirety of his
two terms, we thought we’d take a look at what it means to impeach a president.
What exactly is impeachment?
Well, off the bat, it may sound like “impeaching” a president means removing him from office,
but in fact, that is only the end result of the impeachment process.
Impeachment is simply the process by which legal charges are pressed against a non-military
member of the government.
This is effectively a high level indictment, and is the first step to an impeachment trial.
According to Article Two of the US Constitution, all civil officers, including the President
and Vice President shall be removed from office if they are impeached, and the trial finds
them guilty.
The constitution lists “Treason, Bribery, and other High Crimes and Misdemeanors”.
Furthermore, only the House of Representatives is allowed to bring impeachment charges, which
is followed by a trial in the Senate.
The first President to face impeachment was Andrew Johnson in 1868.
Johnson had taken over the Presidency after Lincoln was assassinated.
Congress passed the “Tenure of Office Act”, which prevented the President from removing
a member of his Cabinet without Senate approval.
Believing the Act was unconstitutional, Johnson relieved his Secretary of War and replaced
him with Ulysses S. Grant.
Three days later, the House voted 126 to 47 to go ahead and impeach the President for
11 “high crimes and misdemeanors”, primarily focused on violation of the Act.
But in order for a president to actually be removed from office, the Constitution requires
that at least two-thirds of the Senate vote to convict.
Johnson’s presidency was saved by a single vote, and he ultimately stayed in office.
The second ever attempted impeachment was in July 1974, against Richard Nixon.
Nixon tried to cover up a break-in at the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters,
in a scandal known as Watergate.
Nixon and his team refused to allow in depth investigations, and the President soon saw
himself facing a number of allegations, including tax fraud.
Many, likely including Nixon, saw that if the house voted for his impeachment, then
he would certainly end up being convicted.
So, just after the House Judiciary Committee approved his impeachment, but before it was
voted on by the House of Representatives, President Nixon resigned on August 9th, 1974.
Similarly to President Johnson, President Clinton was ultimately impeached but not found
guilty.
The trial became widely known for Clinton’s evasive and untruthful statements, such as
“I did not have sexual relations with that woman”, and questioning the definition of
the word “is”.
In the end, no president has ever been removed from office after being impeached, and really,
impeachment isn’t the worst thing that can happen.
During the crafting of the Constitution, Benjamin Franklin said that most unpopular heads of
state are removed from office by being assassinated, and that perhaps, there should be a procedural
method of removal instead.
So there you have it: impeachment.
Regardless of how many conservatives ask for Obama to be impeached, given this is his last
year as president, he actually has nothing to lose when it comes to pushing controversial
legislation.
Find out more in our video.
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