The threat of impeachment of a U.S. president has unfortunately become a political tool over the past quarter century.
The Constitutional Convention of 1787 established the rules for impeachment not only of a president, but members of Congress and federal judges.
Impeachment is defined as a charge of misconduct made against the holder of a public office. Grounds for impeachment, as outlined in Section 4 of Article Two of the United States Constitution, are “treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors.”
The first president to be impeached was Andrew Johnson in 1868. He was acquitted by a single vote in the U.S. Senate.
It was more than 100 years before the U.S. House, which is responsible for bringing charges for impeachment, again broached an impeachment action.
The House Judiciary Committee voted to impeach President Richard Nixon in July 1974 during the Watergate scandal.
No vote was ever taken in the House to impeach Nixon, who resigned in August.
For the next 25 years, the House never considered legislation to impeach a president.
President Bill Clinton was impeached by the House in 1998 and eventually acquitted by the Senate in 1999.
Donald Trump became the first president to have articles of impeachment approved by the U.S. House twice.
Trump faced impeachment in 2019 for actions involving the 2018 election. He was acquitted in 2020.
Trump was impeached a second time in 2021 for his alleged involvement in encouraging the Jan. 6 insurrection on the day that the Congress was voting to confirm Joe Biden as president.
For a second time, he was found not guilty, although he was no longer serving as president.
This past week, Republicans in the U.S. House indicated they plan to seek the impeachment of Biden.
The framers of the Constitution probably couldn’t envision that potentially three presidents could face impeachment proceedings within a quarter-century.
The problem is that once impeachment becomes viewed as a political tool, it could mean that in the future every president faced with the majority party in the House being of the opposite party could face impeachment.
No president has ever been removed from office through impeachment.
But with the current divisive political atmosphere in the country, a majority party in control of Congress could vote to remove a president of the opposite party.
Once that trend is established, it could become a slippery slope in terms of leadership at the national level.
It should be a process reserved for “high crimes and misdemeanors” and not just displeasure with policies being fostered by a president.
It’s time for cooler heads to prevail and put an end to impeachment as a political strategy.
Follow Ken de la Bastide on Twitter @KendelaBastide, or call 765-640-4863.
