How Impeachment Actually Works | ATTN:
Channel: ATTN:
Date: 2019-10-03

Here's exactly how impeaching a president actually works.

Everyone’s talking about impeachment. Will Donald Trump be impeached? Should we impeach President Trump? Did President Donald Trump actually commit impeachable offenses? 

But what does it actually mean to impeach a president? Will we actually impeach Trump?

Two presidents have been impeached but were still able to finish out their presidential term. 

So let’s dive in and figure it out! 

#Impeachment is like an indictment in a criminal case. Before ever going to trial, a defendant is charged with a crime. Impeachment is basically the same thing, but the defendant is the President. In both of these cases, no one’s been found guilty...yet. 

But how does impeachment actually work? The constitution is pretty vague and can be interpreted in different ways. 

But based on past precedent, here’s what we’re looking at.

First, an allegation of impeachable offenses must be made. This can happen in a couple different ways: through an independent investigation, a resolution drawn up by someone in Congress, or an official impeachment inquiry courtesy of Nancy Pelosi. 

Second, the House committee investigates impeachment allegations. 

This usually ends up falling on the House Judiciary Committee, who then votes whether to move the investigation forward. If the majority of the committee says aye, then impeachment goes to the House Floor. 

Which brings us to the situation regarding Richard Nixon’s Presidency. Contrary to popular belief, it was at this point in the impeachment process that Richard Nixon’s Presidency came to an end. Yes, the House Judiciary Committee did recommend that he get impeached. But, he resigned before the House of Representatives could vote to impeach him. 

Back to the process! Now that the House Judiciary Committee has voted to move the investigation forward and they’ve sent it to the floor of the House, we can move on to the third step.

Next, the house votes on articles of impeachment. And all they need is a simple majority for the President to be impeached. If the vote goes through, the President of the United States has been impeached. 

But impeachment doesn’t mean they’ve been kicked out of the office! That is actually up to the Senate. 

At this point, the Senate Chambers becomes a courtroom and our 100 Senators are the jury. During the trial, the House becomes the prosecution, the President’s lawyers become the defense, and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is the judge. A trial begins, the evidence is examined, and eventually, the Senate votes. But this time, the vote has to pass by a ⅔ supermajority. In other words, 67 Senators have to vote yes in order to remove the President from office. 

For historical context, Andrew Johnson is the closest any President has come to getting kicked out of office. He was just one Senate vote away. 

Just like Bill Clinton, who was impeached in 1998 for lying under oath about an affair. But only 45 Senators voted to expel Clinton from office, so he was acquitted. And Clinton went on to finish his term as an impeached President. 

But what would happen if, for the first time, a President of the United States was removed from office after being impeached? As expected, the vice president would step in and there would be a line of cabinet positions ready to step up if someone steps down, dies or gets impeached. 

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