An Impeachment Primer

This is your lucky day!

I bet with all of the impeachment of President "Donald" J. Trump talk, you said to yourself, "I don't know what exactly impeachment is and if there have been other Presidents that have been impeached. Is there someone who can help me?" 

Like I said, this is your lucky day because I was a history major and political science minor in college.  I can tell you all you need to know about Presidential impeachment. For your added benefit, I will be fact-checked by The National Association of History Majors.


What is impeachment?  Impeachment is a political process in which a President can be removed from office for "high crimes and misdemeanors".

What are "high crimes and misdemeanors"?  It doesn't have a precise meaning. To regular people (voters) is means committing a felony (robbing a bank) or misdemeanor (petty theft).  To political activists on Twitter, it means any action of a President you don't like.

Huh?  President Gerald "R" Ford once said  "An impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers to be at a given moment. Wait. Is that a hole? Whoaaaaaaaaaaa."  (Note:  The National Association of History Majors advises that the last part of this quote is an ill-advised attempt at humor and will write Mr. Manis a strongly worded e-mail.)

Where does impeachment start?  It starts in the House of Representatives, or as it is known in our nation's capital, "Not The Brightest Collections of Former Bartenders Around".  From there it goes to the Senate where the President goes on "trial" and can be removed from office by a two-thirds vote of the Senate.  However, and this is important, a President can be "impeached" and not removed from office.

Have Other Presidents Been Impeached?  Yes, two Presidents have been impeached.

Andrew Johnson.

Andrew Johnson was one of Abraham Lincoln's not well thought out ideas.  He was a Democrat from Tennessee. Lincoln thought it would be neat to a have a Southerner on the ticket even though Johnson wrote a book about the environment and said the "earth has a temperature" like he was some high school librarian.  (Note:  The National Association of History Majors advises that Mr. Manis has confused Andrew Johnson with another Vice President from Tennessee, Albert  "Al" Gore.)  Lincoln, as you may remember, was assassinated and Johnson became President.  Johnson was basically an uncouth goob and he was impeached for that reason.  Technically, Johnson was impeached for firing Secretary of War Edwin Staton and this violated the "You Can't Fire Edwin Staton Act".  Johnson was almost "convicted"  or removed from office by the Senate.  But, the Senate finally concluded, "We know this is 1868 and all, but man this is a boring reason to remove somebody from office. We'll let him go with a good talking to and put a note in his file in human resources."  (The National Association of History Majors: "Sigh") 

William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton

Now, this is the President with the Vice President that had a book about the environment! (The National Associate of History Majors: "Yay. Something accurate!")  President Bill's trouble began when an "independent prosecutor" began investigating a sneaky land purchase in President Bill's home state of Arkansas and ended with President Bill's getting in trouble for lying about dropping his trousers in front of an Arkansas state employee and doing something gross with a cigar to a White House intern. There was also something about a blue dress.  We learned way too much information about President Bill.  The House of Representatives impeached President Bill but the Senate, like with President Johnson, failed to convict him.  Historians have concluded that it was a mistake to impeach President Bill, mainly because it made his battle-axe wife, Hillary, a sympathetic character, which historians say was nearly impossible to do.


What about Nixon?  In 1972, Richard Nixon was cruising to a landslide re-election against the hapless George McGovern when he decided to do the most Nixon thing possible. He ordered a break-in to The Democratic National Headquarters at the Watergate Hotel to obtain information that would hurt McGovern's chances, even though McGovern had as much of a chance of becoming President as I have becoming People Magazine's "Sexiest Man of The Year".  (The National Association of History Majors: "Amen").  Then in true Nixon fashion, he lied about it for two years. Unlike President Bill, there was no sex involved, so it was kind of boring.  There were tapes and hearings. Somewhere along the line Nixon's Vice President Spiro Agnew (yes, that was his name) had to resign from his office for something totally unrelated to Watergate (the name of the scandal, not the hotel) and Gerald R Ford (see above) became Vice President.  Long story short: when it became apparent that Nixon would be convicted in the Senate he resigned before The House could vote on impeachment. This led to  Ford becoming  President on my 15th birthday.

Will Trump Be Impeached? Probably. The Democrats really want to impeach him. He is their great orange whale.  I seriously doubt if he will be removed from office.

But hey, I'm a history major. What do I know?