Today is a day that will go down in history, but not a good day in history. Today is the beginning of Trump’s second impeachment trial. He will be the only president in history who has been impeached twice. He joins a very small club of former presidents who have suffered the ignominy of impeachment. The others were Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton. Richard Nixon resigned before he could be formally impeached. How do Trump’s alleged crimes stack up against the other members of his club?
Andrew Johnson was Lincoln’s vice president in 1864 at a time when Lincoln was faced with trying to coax the country back together after the Civil War. Unfortunately, Lincoln was assassinated 42 days into his second term and Johnson took over as President to preside over Reconstruction. While one part of the Republican party sided with Lincoln and wanted to move forward with leniency for The South, the Radical Republicans wanted to punish the Southern politicians and extend full civil rights to freed slaves. In contrast, Johnson wanted to extend pardons to Confederate leaders and he vetoed political rights for freedmen.
The Radical Republicans, in revenge, passed a law stating that the president could not replace members of his cabinet without Senate approval. Johnson thought this was unconstitutional and proceeded to fire his Secretary of War. The Radical Republicans then brought 11 articles of impeachment against Johnson. The House voted 126 to 47 to impeach Johnson but the Senate failed to convict him by 1 vote.
It wasn’t until Bill Clinton was in office in the 1990’s that another impeachment took place. The Clinton saga started in 1993 when he and his wife, Hillary, were under Federal investigation for a deal that became known as the Whitewater controversy. In addition, in 1994, Paula Jones sued Clinton for sexual harassment. Kenneth Starr had been appointed as special counsel to investigate Whitewater but couldn’t find evidence of any wrongdoing. However, the investigation broadened due to the Jones lawsuit and that ultimately led to the whole Monica Lewinsky scandal.
Clinton was impeached by the House in 1998 on two counts: perjury and obstruction of justice. Both of these charges stemmed from the Lewinsky affair and had nothing to do with Whitewater which was the original genesis for the appointment of Ken Starr. After a five-week trial in the Senate, Clinton was acquitted on both counts. [And just as an interesting fact, in 1999, even after this lurid trail, Clinton’s popularity peaked at 73%]. That brings us to Trump who now has the distinction of being the only US president to be impeached twice.
We all recall the first impeachment saga. Trump was impeached for abusing his power to coerce President Zelensky of the Ukraine to announce an investigation into his primary political rival, Joe Biden and his son, Hunter. He was impeached in the House along party lines but the Senate was controlled by the Republicans and that would prove to be a dead end for a conviction on the articles of impeachment. The Senate refused to call any witnesses at all and acquitted Trump along party lines. Think about that for just a second. Bill Clinton’s trial in the Senate resulting from his affair with a 21-year-old intern lasted 5 weeks and involved multiple witnesses, while Trump’s first impeachment trial lasted days and involved no witnesses, even though the allegations against Trump were much more egregious than those against Clinton.
Here we are at Trump’s second impeachment trial where he is accused of inciting an insurrection at the nation’s capital in order to overturn the results of a democratic election. No doubt, it will be yet another interesting spectacle. Trump’s lawyers will argue that his speech was covered under the First Amendment and they will also argue that it is unconstitutional to impeach a president after he has left office. While I find both arguments a bit hollow given what happened, I find the second one bordering on absurd.
The fact is, there have been cases of Federal officials who have been impeached and convicted after leaving office. However, if it were true that a president cannot be impeached and convicted after leaving office and according to a DOJ opinion a president cannot be indicted while in office, what’s to keep a president from committing ‘high crimes and misdemeanors” a few days before leaving office? He can’t be indicted and he knows he’ll be out of office before the House and Senate can move to impeach and convict him – it’s essentially a free pass to do just about anything he wants!! That just doesn’t pass the giggle test.
Here’s the thing. Andrew Johnson was impeached for firing one of his cabinet members – and acquitted. Clinton was impeached for lying about an affair – and acquitted. Trump was impeached for abusing his power for personal political gain – and acquitted. Now Trump has been impeached for inciting an insurrection to undermine a democratic election. If he gets acquitted, I’m just wondering what it will ultimately take for a president to be impeached AND convicted because the nature of the crimes just seems to be getting more and more egregious. If Trump is not held to account for his actions this time around, the next ‘Trump’ might feel even more emboldened – if that is possible. It will certainly not bode well for the future of democracy.
I believe our founding fathers did not realize how weak impeaching a president would be. If Trump is acquitted, impeaching a president in the future will only be a waste of time. The law should be removed because there will be no legal benefit if the Senate is controlled by the political party of the president and that will only produce political theater with no conviction. Impeachment should be replaced with incitement and an impartial jury be assigned. Unfortunately, there is no such thing as being impartial in this political environment we have in our country today.