Public televised hearings
begin tomorrow Wednesday, November 13, 2019, as the United States House of
Representatives considers whether or not to impeach President Donald Trump, as
noted by Reuters[i],
TheHill[ii],
CBSNews[iii],
and numerous other news sources.
Four things to consider
are:
·
Will President Trump be impeached by the
U.S. House of Representatives?
·
If so, will President Trump be convicted
by the U.S. Senate and removed from office?
·
Will President Trump resign from office
voluntarily?
·
Despite much wrongdoing, why has no
President ever been convicted by the Senate and removed from office?
I address each of these four
questions below.
First,
Will President Trump Be Impeached?
The impeachment process
is still in its early stages. But this question seems to be the easiest of the four
to answer. The majority of the members of the U.S. House of Representatives are
Democrats. It only takes a majority vote to impeach the President. And many
Democrats have made their dissatisfaction with the President clear on a variety
of issues that they apparently consider worthy of impeachment. Therefore,
impeachment seems very likely.
Second,
Will the U.S. Senate Convict President Trump?
If/when the U.S. House of
Representatives impeaches the President, the U.S. Senate will then consider
whether or not to convict him of whatever wrongdoing(s) the House charges him
with, thus removing him from office.
The United
States Constitution[iv]
requires the “Concurrence of two thirds of the Members present” to convict him.
Since the majority of the U.S. Senate members are Republicans, even if all
Democrats in the U.S. Senate vote to remove Trump, many Republicans would need
to vote that way also to convict him. So far, few Republicans seem inclined to
vote that way.
How the public hearings
go, how public opinion goes, and other factors will determine the end result.
But in the entire history of this country, there has never been a President
convicted and removed from office.
My guess is that since
zero Republican U.S. House of Representatives members even voted for opening a
formal impeachment inquiry, when all is said and done, that the United States
Senate will not get a two thirds majority to convict President Trump.
Third,
Will President Trump Resign From Office Voluntarily?
So far, the President
shows no sign at all of that. And though he is known to change his mind, I see
no evidence thus far that would indicate such a thing occurring. His base of
evangelical conservatives seems largely to be sticking with him and so do most
Republicans.
Fourth,
Why Has No President Ever Been Removed from Office by the U.S. Senate?
We’ve never had a
President formally convicted and removed from office by the United States Senate
despite some that may have committed numerous wrongs.
Two Presidents (Andrew
Johnson and Bill Clinton) were impeached. But neither was convicted by the
Senate.
One President (Richard
Nixon) resigned before the proceedings were completed, since Republican leaders
convinced him he would be convicted and removed from office, as stated by the ChristianScienceMonitor,[v] Politico[vi],
and other news sources.
Should any past Presidents have been forcibly removed from office? I’m not an expert on past Presidents, and I am not qualified to make that decision. But
I will cite a few examples of Presidents that allegedly committed significant wrongdoing and/or allegedly possessed significant weaknesses:
·
Bill Clinton allegedly had hundreds of
extramarital affairs. At least four women accused him of sexually harassing
them, including one who said he raped her, according to BusinessInsider[vii]
and other news sources. However, his impeachment trial focused on one
consensual affair with an intern. Numerous other Presidents have also been accused
of adultery and other sexual offenses.
·
Warren G. Harding’s administration
involved much corruption though he was never personally implicated in it, as reported by Britannica.com[viii] and other sources.
·
Abraham Lincoln and some other Presidents
are believed by many scholars to have suffered from mental illness during their
Presidencies. BPHope.com[ix]
claims at least twelve U.S. Presidents suffered from mental illness. Though
many scholars consider Lincoln our greatest President, others feel that a
better qualified one could have gradually ended slavery peacefully without a
war that resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths, injuries, and divisions
that to some extent still exist.
·
A few Presidents were supposedly
incapacitated at times and their wives performed many Presidential functions. For
example, after President Woodrow Wilson suffered a stroke, his wife Edith
Wilson was “functionally running the Executive branch of government for the
remainder of Wilson’s second term” according to a piece on WhiteHouse.gov[x]
and other news sources. Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s wife, Eleanor Roosevelt,
also played a leading role in his administration due to his disability
according to a piece on PresidentialProfiles.com[xi]
and other sources.
I don’t know why no President
has ever been forcibly removed from office. But that fact seems to indicate up
the difficulty of doing so. And, I am not going to discuss assassination, since
I abhor violence.
Final
Thoughts
As an independent voter
who didn’t like either Clinton or Trump, I voted for another candidate in the November
2016 presidential election. Independent voters can’t vote in the primary
election in Kentucky (where I live), but if I could have voted in the primary, I
would have voted for Kentucky Senator Rand Paul. You may consider me biased since Rand Paul and I both live in Kentucky. But Paul is a maverick who has
many well-thought-out views as I see it.
Persons who are outspoken
mavericks sometimes antagonize people though. That is the case with Trump.
President Trump is
perhaps our most communicative President. He sends numerous daily public tweets.
He often offends people
with his statements or tweets. He frequently changes his mind when he gains new
information. He sometimes says perhaps outrageous things. His seeming
spur-of-the-moment comments and/or decisions apparently often need to be
altered by his staff.
But his being a maverick
can be a benefit compared to Presidents who stick strictly to a political party’s
views. Sometimes it’s wise to change one’s mind.
Furthermore, for better or worse President Trump has done or tried to do much of what he promised to do during his Presidential campaign:
Furthermore, for better or worse President Trump has done or tried to do much of what he promised to do during his Presidential campaign:
·
He has appointed pro-life judges.
·
He has sought (unsuccessfully so far) to
rebuild the country’s infrastructure.
·
He has loosened environmental restrictions.
·
He has taken the types of actions on trade
and immigration that he campaigned on.
· And his personality as President seems similar
to his personality during the presidential campaign and before. I dislike his
hyperbole (lying may be a better more accurate term) and his megalomaniac
nature. But I think that’s what he displayed during the campaign. Sadly, hyperbole
and megalomania seem common among many in leadership positions, though leaders may typically not have it to Trump’s extent.
Also, the Constitution
does not forbid persons who are impeached and removed from office from running
again. This impeachment process is occurring during the reelection campaign. In
theory, Trump could be impeached and removed from office, then reelected. Would
the new Congress repeat the process or would a group of more supportive persons
be elected to Congress along with Trump?
Time will tell how it
ends. And public reaction to the televised public proceedings may be a key
factor (for better or worse).
However, unless the
televised proceedings lead to some breakthroughs, I do not expect Trump to be
convicted by the Senate or to resign.
The voters may make the
decision on the reelection campaign in a year, November 2020.
ENDNOTES
[i] Susan Cornwell;
“Explainer: What to expect from the televised Trump impeachment hearings next
week”; Reuters; November 8, 2019; webpage accessed November 10, 2019; https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-impeachment-hearings-explai/explainer-what-to-expect-from-the-televised-trump-impeachment-hearings-next-week-idUSKBN1XI22U
[ii] John Kruzel and
Olivia Beavers; “Key impeachment witnesses to know as public hearings begin”;
TheHill; November 9, 2019; webpage accessed November 10, 2019; https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/469704-key-impeachment-witnesses-to-know-as-public-hearings-begin
[iii] Caroline
Cournoyer, Major Garrette, and Nancy Cordes; “What happened in the impeachment
inquiry this week”; CBSNews; November 9, 2019; webpage accessed November 10,
2019; https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-impeachment-inquiry-recap-house-releases-testimony-transcripts-prepares-public-hearings-2019-11-09/
[iv] The Constitution
of the United States of America”; GovInfo.gov; July 25, 2007; webpage accessed
November 10, 2019; https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CDOC-110hdoc50/pdf/CDOC-110hdoc50.pdf
[v] Peter Grier: ;
“Richard Nixon’s resignation: the day before, a moment of truth”;
CSMonitor.com; August 7, 2014; webpage accessed November 10, 2019; https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/Decoder/2014/0807/Richard-Nixon-s-resignation-the-day-before-a-moment-of-truth
[vi] Andrew Glass;
“When the GOP Torpedoed Nixon”; Politico; February 7, 2007; webpage accessed
November 10, 2019; https://www.politico.com/story/2007/02/when-the-gop-torpedoed-nixon-002680
[vii] Eliza Relman;
“These are the sexual-assault allegations against Bill Clinton”; Business Insider;
June 4, 2018; webpage accessed November 10, 2019; https://www.businessinsider.com/these-are-the-sexual-assault-allegations-against-bill-clinton-2017-11
[viii]
“Warren G.
Harding”; Britannica.com; last updated October 29, 2019; webpage accessed
November 12, 2019; https://www.britannica.com/biography/Warren-G-Harding
[ix] “The Surprising
Link between American Presidents and Mental Illness”; bp Magazine; webpage
accessed November 10, 2019; https://www.bphope.com/bipolar-buzz/the-surprising-link-between-american-presidents-and-mental-illness/
[x] “Edith Bolt Galt
Wilson”; WhiteHouse.gov; webpage accessed November 10, 2019; https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/first-ladies/edith-bolling-galt-wilson/
[xi] “The Role of First
Lady: Martha Washington to Laura Bush – First ladies with strong impact on
their husbands’ presidencies”; PresidentProfiles.com; webpage accessed November
10, 2019; https://www.presidentprofiles.com/General-Information/The-Role-of-First-Lady-Martha-Washington-to-Laura-Bush-First-ladies-with-strong-impact-on-their-husbands-presidencies.html
NOTE:
This article being
submitted to Google Blogger on November 12, 2019 is very similar to one the
author submitted to Craft News Report, a website operated by his friend Paul Craft,
on November 10, 2019.
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