Almost always, yes. For the last three and a half years, the Democratic party has tried to impeach president Donald Trump. I say the Democratic party, rather than a subset of Americans, because Trump’s approval rating with conservatives has remained north of 80% for most of his presidency and his overall approval rating has rested between 40-45%. The conservative approval rating matters in impeachment process, because impeachment is considerably more of a political concern than a judicial one. Only one senator has ever voted to remove a president of his party from office (Mitt Romney). It’s clear that impeachment, and the threat of removal from office, does not serve as a deterrent from presidential abuses of power.
What if impeachments and removals were significantly more common? Would it remain true that senators would continue to vote along party lines? Are there past presidents who would have been similarly strong candidates for impeachment?
To start exploring these questions, it is worth an overview of the impeachment process. The Constitution gives the House of Representatives the power to draft articles of impeachment against the president. The articles of impeachment include a charge of misconduct of the President. The Senate evaluates the articles of impeachment under the direction of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. If two-thirds, or greater, of the Senate convict the President, the President will be removed from office.
The House of Representatives are limited to “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors” as reasons to impeach a sitting president (or other official). Unfortunately, the phase “high crimes and misdemeanors” has never been clearly defined.
The Articles of Impeachment for Donald Trump included two principle charges:
- Abuse of Power for alleged quid pro quo dealings with the president of Ukraine.
- Obstruction of Congress for hindering the subsequent investigation.
Both charges referenced high crimes and misdemeanors as the basis of impeachment. Imagine a banking official charged with abuse of power and obstruction of justice, would Americans prefer that the banking official is let free with no investigation? No, evidence from the Great Recession makes it clear that Americans desired stricter treatment of Wall Street Officials. If impeachment did not carry the weight that it does politically, Americans would be much less split on whether Congress should try the President through impeachment proceedings.
Are there other presidents who could have been impeached with similar charges?
Yes. this post will not review all Presidents who would have been likely candidates; I have identified three that could have faced similar charges and are worth summary:
- Andrew Jackson– Endorsed a state law that did not allow white Americans to live on American Indian land, when the Supreme Court ruled that the law was unconstitutional, Jackson refused to force the state to comply with the ruling. His treatment of American Indians invalidated numerous treaties with various American Indian tribes.
- Abraham Lincoln– During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus, enacted war-time executive powers, and gave the Emancipation Proclamation without the approval of Congress or the Supreme Court. When Chief Justice, Roger Brooke Taney, dissented to the suspension of habeas corpus, Lincoln ignored the dissent.
- Ulysses S. Grant– During the Grant administration, distillers in the Midwest did not pay the required taxes on alcohol. To escape taxation, the distillers had a wide-spread and complex bribery scheme, that kept officials from collecting taxes. Grant used the weight of his presidency to appoint and then defend his allies who were embroiled in the scheme.
Each of the three could have been subject to impeachment on the same terms: Abuse of Power, and obstruction of another branch or investigation. I am not advocating that all should have been removed; it is hard to imagine a United States after the Civil War had Lincoln been removed. Impeachment is a process to review and try Presidents who perform acts of “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanor;” if the general public and Congress is not open to having these trials, then the general public is doomed to have Presidents who continue to toe each line. If removal is not a threat, then sitting Presidents will not be threatened by it.
Trump should have been impeached, so should many past presidents. The removal process does not work, and I do not have a solution for it. It is unclear to me which presidents should have been removed; it is clear to me that with more impeachments and more chances for removal, there will be more opportunities for the Senate to get the process corrected in the future.
Polly Wanna Math 