This article was written by Ashna Uprety of Richard Montgomery High School
What exactly is Impeachment?
Article Ⅱ, Section 4, of the U.S. The Constitution states, “The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.” So what exactly is impeachment? It is a power granted in the Constitution to the legislative branch to remove the president from office if they commit, as stated; treason, bribery, or other high crimes.
Donald Trump is among the three U.S. presidents that have ever been impeached by the House of Representatives. He is also the first president to be impeached twice. It is extremely rare for a president to even receive impeachment inquiries from the House, let alone be impeached twice in one term. So why was Trump still in office if he was impeached twice? To be removed from office, the House of Representatives must impeach the president, then the Senate must convict and remove them. No U.S. president has been ever removed from office by the Senate.
The Reasons
According to CNN, House Democrats had finalized the articles of impeachment on January 12th, charging Trump with “incitement of insurrection”. The charges were referring to the storming of the Capitol building on January 6 by Trump supporters. According to The New York Times, Trump had egged on the domestic terrorists by tweeting several times about the planned “Stop the Steal” protest. The transcript of Trump’s January 6 speech before the catastrophic event occurred, provided by U.S. News, shows that Trump had said “You’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong.” According to The Guardian, he had also told the crowd, “If you don't fight like hell you're not going to have a country anymore.” The intent of his words were clearly to inspire his supporters to take drastic measures to win back a fair election he believed he had won.
What Would Impeachment Have Done?
Trump is out of office, so why would Congress need to impeach and remove him? How would it affect a president no longer sitting in office? Well, Trump could be barred from running for federal office. If the Senate voted to convict Trump, they would have another vote to decide whether he is eligible to run for federal office ever again. Additionally, this would be a huge blow to his reputation as the first president to ever be removed from office by the Senate. There were speculations about whether he would lose his post-presidential privileges, like his pension and paid staff, as well as paid travel and security. If Trump had been removed before he left office, he would have lost those privileges. But he has already left office and it is not certain whether he would lose those perks.
What Were the Results?
The House of Representatives voted to impeach Trump 232-197 on January 13, a week after the fateful events at the Capitol. From there, an impeachment trial began in the Senate. In the House, a simple majority is required to vote in favor of impeaching the president. Then, in the Senate, a two-thirds majority (67 senators) must vote in favor of conviction. The Senate is currently made up of 50 Republicans and 50 Democrats. The tiebreaker is Vice President Kamala Harris, meaning the Democrats have the majority. The Guardian reported that prior to the impeachment trial, 45 Republican senators had tried to dismiss the charges. However, their efforts were unsuccessful due to the 55 senators who voted that the impeachment trial should take place. The Democrats would have had to rally 67 senators to vote in favor of conviction. Due to the division of the Senate, it was highly unlikely that Trump would have been convicted.
Trump was acquitted in the Senate by a 57 (guilty) to 43 (not guilty) vote on February 13. Seven Republicans voted for conviction, but they still fell 10 votes short of 67. According to CNN, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said, “The Senate's decision today does not condone anything that happened on or before that terrible day. It simply shows that senators did what the former President failed to do. We put our constitutional duty first." McConnell had voted against conviction with the majority of the Republicans, as expected. Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the lead impeachment manager, stated, "The bottom line is that we convinced a big majority in the Senate of our case.” Though Trump was not convicted, this impeachment trial will go down in history and certainly taint the reputation of the 45th president.
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