Home » A history of partisanship in US presidential impeachments

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A history of partisanship in US presidential impeachments — 17 Comments

  1. Well, let’s see what happens if we get Socialist Bernie Sanders elected president. Oh, actually, no, let’s not.

  2. Maybe things have changed on the other side too now:

    REP. MATT GAETZ: Tomorrow, Laura, I will be filing charges against Nancy Pelosi in the House Ethics Committee. She disgraced the House of Representatives, she embarrassed our country, and she destroyed official records. The law does not allow the Speaker of the House to destroy the records of the House. The rules of the House do not permit some little temper tantrum because you don’t like what the President of the United States says.

    You know what? A lot of Republicans are sick of the double standard here. When Joe Wilson made a comment and excited utterance, oh, the Democrats really brought the heat down on him — when he said that Obama lied about illegals getting healthcare under Obamacare. By the way, Joe Wilson was right. We’ve got to apply the same standards to the Democrats that they want to apply to us, and there will be an ethics investigation into Nancy Pelosi. We will start the ball rolling to have her censured. The first act begins tomorrow when Congressman Zeldin and I will join Kay Granger in a censure resolution, and we will force a vote on that resolution.

    -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

    Trump has shown them that the consequences they feared for standing up for things was more a nothing than a something… To be afraid of a maybe is to self censor and self control against an outcome that one only believes will happen, not one that will happen…

    this is a thing that has a tendency to grow… that standing up for what helps people gets people on your side, and allows you more ability to do the same, is an emboldening moment of change

    the only thing to fear is fear itself…

    if people vote for them they will know that they get votes for doing right
    not lose them… they achieve freedom of action, not lose it…

    its a genie that will be very difficult to put back in the bottle…
    at least till incrementalism and time makes it so (again)

  3. “Which brings us to the recent impeachment of Trump. In the House, no Republican voted for either article, and all but 2 Democrats crossed lines on the first article and 3 on the second. ” – Neo

    ???
    “Only 2 Democrats crossed lines” is probably what you meant to type.

    https://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2019/12/18/impeachment-vote-n2558216

    Two Democrats, Jeff Van Drew (NJ) and Collin Peterson (MN), joined Republicans in voting against impeachment on Article I. Van Drew, Peterson and Jared Golden (ME) voted against Article II. Democrat Tulsi Gabbard (HI) voted present on both. Drew plans to change his party affiliation to Republican, citing unfair impeachment as the reason why.

  4. My prediction: every future president will be impeached, provided the opposing party controls the House.

  5. Artfldgr on February 6, 2020 at 3:55 pm said:

    Trump has shown them [other Republicans] that the consequences they feared for standing up for things was more a nothing than a something… To be afraid of a maybe is to self censor and self control against an outcome that one only believes will happen, not one that will happen…

    this is a thing that has a tendency to grow… that standing up for what helps people gets people on your side, and allows you more ability to do the same, is an emboldening moment of change

    the only thing to fear is fear itself…

    if people vote for them they will know that they get votes for doing right
    not lose them… they achieve freedom of action, not lose it…

    its a genie that will be very difficult to put back in the bottle…
    * * *
    Here’s what President Trump said, and very true it is:
    https://townhall.com/tipsheet/juliorosas/2020/02/06/trump-shreds-muellers-russia-investigation-as-bullsht-in-postacquittal-press-conference-n2560894

    While he was happy to be done with impeachment, Trump called Robert Mueller’s investigation into his 2016 campaign for alleged ties to Russia as “bullsh*t.”

    “I mean, it worked out. We went through Hell unfairly, did nothing wrong. Did nothing wrong. I’ve done things wrong in my life, I will admit. Not purposely, but I’ve done things wrong,” Trump said about the impeachment trial and vote.

    “But, this is what the end result is,” Trump said as he held up the front page of The Washington Post that read, “Trump Acquitted.”

    “So… You can take that home. honey, maybe we’ll frame it. The only good headline I’ve ever had on The Washington Post,” he joked.

    Trump further called the impeachment campaign launched by Democrats as a “witch hunt” and “a disgrace,” adding that any other president probably would not have survived the Democrats ongoing campaign to remove him from office.

  6. Also in re Artfldgr’s comment:
    https://townhall.com/columnists/markdavis/2020/02/06/acquitted-forever-impeachment-diary-final-installment-n2560859

    So to conclude the diary, a semantics question: Is Trump truly exonerated? Most dictionaries say the word means absolution from blame, which did indeed accompany the Senate finding of—literally—“not guilty.” But the exoneration of Trump, his vindication, the clearing of his name—these are all viewed through the varied lenses of Americans of different political stripes.

    Trump’s supporters are already proclaiming unfettered victory. His critics say he remains damaged goods, tainted by the findings of impeachment even while spared its ultimate consequence. The Senate verdict is a Rorschach test open to interpretation by every voter. It will take until November 3, when those voters make their choice for him or against him, for history to record whether the nation wants him removed or handed a second term.

    The Democrats, of course, will continue to call a Trump win in 2020 “illegitimate,” but will anyone else continue to listen?

  7. neo states, “If you look back on the history of US presidential impeachments,” and then states, “the majority of the bipartisanship and/or crossing of party lines was by Republicans rather than Democrats, and it was Republicans voting against impeachment and/or removal of a Democrat president. This will probably not be a surprise. Democrats tended much more to vote as a bloc for impeachment and/or removal of a Republican president.”

    I interpret that to indicate that the democrat mind set has never been in favor of bipartisanship but rather committed to winning because the end justifies the means.

  8. National Review is still the home of the Never Trumpers.

    Locus of the Republican fainting couch, the pearl-clutchers have a new hero in Mitt Romney — and cite the same lines from “Man for All Seasons” that I did on another thread*, but adoringly agreeing with him rather than simply respecting his right to vote his conscience on principle, as I did.
    And then there are the posts that run, more or less: well, yeah, Trump has delivered on a huge conservative wishlist that the GOP touted and failed on for decades, but he’s just so icky.

    One particularly even admits that some of our past presidents haven’t been all that great either, but gosh darn The Donald is soooo stupid he just accidentally accomplished all these great things.

    https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2020/02/24/has-the-presidency-become-impossible/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=river&utm_content=top-bar-latest&utm_term=fourteenth

    *BTW, if you look into More’s biography, he did some pretty icky things himself, but that doesn’t invalidate the principles that we all revere from Bolt’s play.
    Just pointing out that they cut both ways, and the script (and history) predispose us to see things from More’s point of view.

  9. Every president won’t face impeachment, for three reasons

    1) Trump’s approval rating rose during this impeachment. As it will do for every President for which there is not a rock-hard case. It’s not like the Clinton impeachment did the Republicans any favours either, and that was a much better case and actually had a small chance of succeeding.

    So unless the opposition party want to lose votes, it ain’t gonna happen.

    The current Democrats are deranged, but that can’t last forever. And non-deranged people just don’t do things that they know will rebound on them.

    2) The charade of impeachment gets in the way of doing actual business.

    The Democrats haven’t been able to do anything positive this term, because they have been resolutely focused on the negative. So come the election later this year, the only thing they will be able to say they have done is fail to impeach.

    3) Even if impeachment succeeded, then what? The VP succeeds.

    It is a reason why candidates should pick a VP that isn’t a loser. Because that helps prevent the temptation to impeach. If Trump ran Sarah Palin as VP, for example, would the Dems really think they won if the impeachment worked?

    Most parties are not deranged enough to spend a lot of time and effort for a win that is a loss.

  10. Some nicely done “ads” for Trump2020 via CTH commenters on this post:

    https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2020/02/06/transcript-of-president-trump-remarks-on-impeachment-acquittal/

    Outstanding pictures used to create a video depiction of the conclusion of Trump’s SOTU, called “The Best Is Yet to Come” –
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDrtQlN6CkY&feature=youtu.be

    “The State of the Democrats” — a really good “Nance the Ripper” video –
    https://twitter.com/KevinJacksonTBS/status/1225253909666492417

    The President’s remarks were most entirely call-outs to the people on his team and the Congress members in House & Senate who gave significant help (with a few missing). Very moving in some places, and also funny.

    This one is some just plain victory snark.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9b83c516386a4178933b7508a7a0090e1b33974c7c48d7784af9549b2d57b5b3.png

  11. The determination of whether this happens again is the fall election. If the Democrats are spanked, losing the House, they will probably cool off. I would not be surprised if they are badly beaten as the Labour Party was in UK. We will see. The Twitter mob is noisy but not that large. Turnout in Iowa was down.

  12. Ackler wrote, “My prediction: every future president will be impeached, provided the opposing party controls the House.”

    Make that “future Republican president” and change “opposing” to “Democratic”.

    But that’s not much of prediction considering Democrats have introduced articles of impeachment against five of the last six Republican presidents. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/dems-impeach-gop-presidents/

  13. Gotta love Snopes’ wriggling – must be because they are all Clintonistas.

    “Mostly false” hah.
    Depends on what the meaning of “try” is.

  14. Hamilton’s Federalist 65 states it perfectly. It’s been morbidly fascinating to see congressional democrats using it WAY OUT OF CONTEXT to support their lynch mob.

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