Then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced an inquiry and months of House hearings and floor debate followed. Yet here was Trump on the phone suggesting the aid would await "a favor" – the announcement of a corruption probe by Ukrainian officials into allegations against Hunter Biden and his father.ĪP In this image from video, the vote total, 52-48 for not guilty, on the first article of impeachment, abuse of power, is displayed on screen during the impeachment trial against President Donald Trump in the Senate on Feb. Zelenskyy was eager to get the promised military aid that had been authorized and appropriated by Congress in legislation Trump himself had signed. Into this temporary void fell the news of a National Security Council official who raised concerns, within the administration, about the contents of a phone call Trump made in the summer of 2019 to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the newly elected president of Ukraine. He determined it was up to Congress to hold the president to account for any misdeeds. In the end, while Mueller found evidence of Russian interference, he neither implicated nor exonerated Trump. The initial impetus had been the expectation that the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election by former FBI Director Robert Mueller would implicate Trump or accuse him of obstructing Mueller's probe. The first was focused on Trump's delaying the delivery of Congressionally-appropriated military aid to Ukraine, which was arming itelf against Russian aggression.īut Democrats had been talking about impeaching Trump from the days immediately after winning the majority in November 2018. Surely few would deny that both the 20 impeachment proceedings against former President Donald Trump were steeped in the toxic, partisan environment of his final years in office. Trump cases illustrate potency of political contexts And these considerations have mattered as much as – if not more than – the specific "high crimes and misdemeanors" cited as impeachment criteria by the Constitution. Previous instances of presidential impeachment have each had their own contexts, each unique to their own political moments. McCarthy was making a frank admission and also stating a plain fact: Impeachments are largely the products of political circumstances. McCarthy, who earlier this month vowed he would never begin such a probe without a majority vote of the whole House, insisted he had been forced to take this step on his own by "new revelations" that had created a new set circumstances. This has been alleged, without evidence, by purported whistleblowers with varying degrees of credibility problems of their own. The implication of the questions asked has been that President Biden himself received money from Ukrainian or possibly Chinese sources in exchange for wielding his influence over U.S. The allegations concern his time as vice president under President Barack Obama but extend to more recent actions and associations, mostly having to do with his son, Hunter. But McCarthy said several House committees would get to work on allegations involving President Biden's conduct. It is not yet clear that the "impeachment inquiry" announced last week by Speaker Kevin McCarthy will even lead to formal charges or a vote in the House. That was the only impeachment process that actually drove a president from office, and arguably the only one that clearly succeeded in what it set out to do. It stopped because the target president, Richard M. The one process that did not go the distance ended just before the House took its vote. Impeachment of the president has reared its head five times in American history, and all five episodes should serve as cautionary tales for those House Republicans who now seem determined to make it six.Įach of these earlier forays had a profound impact on the direction of national politics, both in the short term and for years to come.įour of the five reached the point of impeachment votes in the House and trials in the Senate that failed to muster the two-thirds vote required to convict.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |