As the word impeachment is looming around the Trump administration, fellow classmates believe that if Trump gets impeached, he is instantly out of office. However, this is not the case.
Impeachment is actually formally charging the President with his crimes. The impeachment process goes through both the House and the Senate. If the House finds the president guilty and impeaches the president, it has to go through the Senate. Then, the Senate holds a trial based upon the charges and decides whether the President should be removed. According to the Constitution, the House has the “sole power of impeachment” and the Senate has the “sole power to try all impeachments”.
So, what are impeachable actions? According to the Constitution, “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors” are considered to be an impeachable offense. However, this vague language leaves room for interpretation which can lead to misunderstandings.
Impeachment talk has circulated since Trump was elected in 2016; however, without the whistleblower, the secret informant that divulged the unethical actions in the Trump administration, it would not have sparked the impeachment inquiry. Trump potentially getting impeached became real on November 14th with his first impeachment inquiry. The impeachment inquiry allows the House to build their case against the President by subpoenaing witnesses and documents. In the House, Trump could face the potential charge of bribery in regard to the Ukraine incident. Allegedly, Trump withheld aid (approximately $400 million dollars of military aid) from Ukraine to put pressure on the country to investigate Joe Biden, the former Vice President and the Democratic candidate running against Trump in the 2020 election, and his son, Hunter Biden. To further suspicion, Trump canceled a scheduled trip to Ukraine.
Trump has much to say on his impeachment inquiry, so let’s turn to his Twitter.
No one knows how this impeachment inquiry will play out or if Trump will be impeached, so we’ll just have to tune in and see what happens from here!
Q & A:
As a Political Science major, here are some questions that my friends have asked me about impeachment:
Who has the power to impeach?
The House initiates the impeachment process bringing the charges against the President. With a majority of 435 votes that decides whether impeachment is plausible, it moves onto the Senate. Then a trial will be held in the Senate and a majority of 2⁄3 votes is needed to impeach the President. So, if the Senate impeaches the President, then he will be formally removed from office.
Can an impeached president run for re-election?
Yes.
What presidents have been impeached?
Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton were the only two presidents to be impeached. Both were impeached in the House, but not in the Senate.
Wasn’t Nixon impeached?
No, there was talk and formal actions taken in regard to his impeachment process, but Nixon resigned.
Hopefully this information can help others understand the impeachment process a little better. If you have time, check out this great Washington Post article that gave step-by-step Trump’s impeachment hearing!
Sources:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/impeachment-hearings-live-update… 7da-0660-11ea-8292-c46ee8cb3dce_story.html
https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1485394595691-5411947d63a4?ixlib=rb-1…. &fit=crop&w=1968&q=80
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/what-impeachment-how-does-it-w… w-n1072451
https://media3.giphy.com/media/SsfgMH53LSlJoidoVv/giphy.gif?cid=790b7611… 7a8116f0ddc544d1e4d33c7ee24&rid=giphy.gif
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-whistleblower-impeachment-e… -impeachment-of-a-u-s-president-work-idUSKBN1X220X