US President Donald Trump impeachment comes as a world
history after the House of Representatives approved abuse of power obstruction
of Congress charges.
Trump sums up the number of US presidents who have been
formally impeached by Congress to three, starting with Andrew Johnson, Bill
Clinton and Donald Trump.
However, as it stands in history, no US president has ever
been removed from office through impeachment.
History shows that, in addition to Johnson, Clinton and
Trump, only one other US president has faced formal impeachment inquiries in
the House of Representatives: Richard Nixon. Many other presidents have been
threatened with impeachment by political foes without gaining any real traction
in Congress.
The constitution bars congress from impeaching a sitting
president, as it stipulates a process which starts in the House of
Representatives.
The house threshold needed for the next step in the process
is a simple majority in the House, which doesn’t mean president is out of office.
The final stage is the Senate impeachment trial. Only if
two-thirds of the Senate find the president guilty of the crimes laid out in
the articles of impeachment is the POTUS removed from office.
Trump Impeachment
No record shows a president who has ever been found guilty
during a Senate impeachment trial, with Andrew Johnson narrowly escaping a
guilty verdict by one vote.
During Wednesday impeachment motion, the House passed the
first charge, accusing Trump of abusing the power of his office, on a 197/230 vote,
which was followed by a second article of impeachment over obstruction of
Congress, on a 198/229 vote.
The abuse of power article alleges that Trump pressured
Ukraine to interfere in the 2020 election by withholding hundreds of millions
of dollars in military aid unless the country’s president announced an
investigation into former vice president Joe Biden and his family.
The obstruction of Congress article is tied to Trump
directing executive branch agencies and officials not to comply with
congressional subpoenas. Several administration officials subsequently refused
to testify during impeachment proceedings, report Buzzfeed.
However, this does not mean that Trump will be out of
office, until the senate passes a vote upholding the charges.
The president will face a trial in the Republican-controlled
Senate, a house that is likely to acquit him, according to political analysis.
Republican understands that if Trump is removed from power,
the party’s imaged could be tarnished, making it impossible to win the next
election.
No party of an impeached President has ever won the White
House in the next presidential election, report CNN.
