On Dec. 18, House Democrats impeached the president of the United States. The charges have never been used in a court of law, because they are not crimes. The charges are abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. In two of the previous impeachment proceedings, Nixon was accused of obstruction of justice and Clinton was accused of perjury.
The precedent that House Democrats used for the impeachment of President Donald Trump was President Andrew Johnson’s impeachment in 1868. This impeachment was full of political animus and hatred for the man who occupied the White House. There is an important distinction between the two, however; seven members of the party opposite the president voted to acquit him. In 1867, Congress passed a law that they knew President Johnson would break. When he removed the Secretary of War from his position, they impeached him for breaking the law that they had passed for this purpose. Seven Republicans voted to acquit him because they knew that the president was in his authority to remove a Secretary of War from his own cabinet. They knew that Congress was wrong for impeaching a president simply because they didn’t like him, his policies, or his actions.
This, however, is exactly what we are seeing in our nation today. House Democrats claim that they were “sad,” that it was a “somber occasion” to impeach a president. However, immediately after Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the “first article is adopted,” there was celebration from Democrats in the House chamber. Speaker Pelosi has announced that she will be withholding the impeachment from proceeding to the Senate until she can verify that it will be a “fair trial” (read: Speaker Pelosi and Democrats get their way. The American people are well aware of the corruption within Washington, D.C., which is exactly why we elected President Trump and why we will re-elect him on November 3, 2020.
— William Deaton
Cordova
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