JOHN TYLER, ANDREW JOHNSON, RICHARD NIXON, BILL CLINTON AND DONALD TRUMP…ARGUMENTS FOR IMPEACHMENT

…[FOR] THE COMMISSION OF “TREASON, BRIBERY OR OTHER HIGH CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS.”

I wonder if Donald J. Trump could be the third President of the United States in our country’s storied history to be impeached. I think about this every day. Every moment actually since the election Hillary managed to lose.

Oh right. Sorry. She won the popular vote. But The Donald is Commander-In-Chief.

And every millisecond since the twentieth of January has defined cruel and unusual punishment, increasingly torturous.

(His endorsement of waterboarding and the act itself may not be as bad).

Second by second; minute by minute; hour by hour; and day by day.

Donald John Trump.

Hardly from presidential stock. Hardly human; not a compliment.

“Impeachment is a formal process in which an official is accused of unlawful activity, the outcome of which, depending on the country, may include the removal of that official from office as well as criminal or civil punishment.”

In the United States, impeachment at the Federal level is reserved for those who may have committed “…high crimes and misdemeanors.”

The Article of Impeachment is the document on which members of the House of Representatives vote to begin the federal procedure. Each allegation is represented by a separate Article. House members in support appoint ‘managers’ who assume the prosecutorial role in preparation for the Senate hearing (trial).

The hearing is conducted in the Senate chambers and if and when the case of a President’s impeachment hits the docket, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court presides (with the V.P. as an alternate if circumstances deem it necessary).

The hearings are as a trial would be.

Witnesses are heard under oath or affirmation. The defendant is afforded the right to legal counsel, to cross-examination of all witnesses and to testify in his or her defense.

The senators must also take an oath or affirmation that they will perform their duties honestly and with due diligence.

(Where’s the part about being unbiased? Unconditionally objective? Must be considered an afterthought, a non-issue. How silly of me).

A 50%-plus-one quorum is mandated and the post-hearing deliberations are held in sequestered private. Removal requires a two-thirds majority Senate vote.

John Tyler, the nation’s Tenth President was the first to come perilously close to impeachment when a resolution was introduced in the House of Representatives following his veto of a bill creating a new bank (the Third Bank of the United States) which infuriated lawmakers.

The initiative failed however and Tyler, the first person to succeed to the presidency from the vice-presidential position — President William Henry Harrison’s term ended when he died in office after one month — reasserted his right to “rule in full.”

When a second bill crossed Tyler’s desk reauthorizing the new bank, he vetoed it again despite his party’s and (inherited) cabinet’s endorsement of it.

Every member of the cabinet resigned except Secretary of State Daniel Webster.

Never elected, Tyler’s turbulent term — which included his signing of the Webster-Ashburton Treaty and the Treaty of Wanghia as well as his overseeing the annexation of Texas in 1845 and its admission as a state, (the joint resolution of which he signed three days before leaving office) — began April 6, 1841 and ended March 3, 1845.

Andrew Johnson, the 17th. President of the United States who served the remainder of Lincoln’s second term following his assassination — nearly a full four years — was accused of violating the Tenure of Office Act when he canned his radical Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton without the mandated Senate approval.

The House impeached him on February 24, 1868 but the Senate acquitted him later that year. He was spared conviction and ouster from office by the slimmest of margins — a single vote. The final Senate vote of 35–19 was one vote shy of the two-thirds required by the Constitution.

(One-hundred-thirty years later Hillary’s husband became the second United States President ever to be impeached by the House and then acquitted in the subsequent Senate trials, but we’ll get to him in due course).

Richard Milhous Nixon. Tricky Dick was 37th. President of the United States serving from 1969 until 1974 when he became the only U.S. president in history to resign from office.

Where to begin?

Nixon’s political career was long and checkered — pardon the word choice.

(On September 23, 1952 then-Senator Nixon was one of the first politicians to use the medium of television to defend himself against accusations of financial improprieties. His address, during the 1952 presidential campaign when he was Dwight D. Eisenhower’s vice-presidential running mate, came to be known as the Fund or Checkers speech in a snarky reference to a black-and-white-spotted cocker spaniel dog his family had been given — and would absolutely keep for the sake of the children and wife Pat, Nixon assured the viewing and listening audience).

A 1937 Duke University Law School Graduate after completing undergraduate studies at Whittier College, he was elected to the House of Representatives in 1946 and to the Senate in 1950. Immediately prior, Nixon served on active duty in the U.S. Navy Reserve in World War II.

He was the 36th. Vice-President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under the presidency of Eisenhower.

After waging an unsuccessful presidential campaign in 1960, losing a close race to John F. Kennedy, in 1962 he lost the gubernatorial bid in California to Pat Brown (father of Jerry, the Golden State’s 34th. — 1975 to 1983 — and presently 39th. Governor).

Nixon finally hit the number in 1968 when he tried his luck at the presidency again and was elected, defeating incumbent Vice-President Hubert Horatio Humphrey.

He won a second term in 1972 running against George McGovern in a landslide of epic proportion.

(Nixon carried 49 states and won 520 electoral votes; he garnered 60.7% of the popular vote).

As president, his crowning achievements included forging diplomatic ties with China and the Soviet Union and withdrawing U.S. troops from an unpopular war in Vietnam.

However, Nixon’s involvement with Watergate — from denial to acknowledgement to a somewhat veiled admission — and his gross misrepresentations, misleading statements and distortion of the facts leading to his August 9, 1974 resignation irreparably tarnished his legacy and further deepened American cynicism about government.

His resignation became an afterthought when House Minority Leader John Jacob Rhodes informed the president that he faced certain impeachment in the House branch. Senate Minority Leader Hugh Scott and Senator Barry Goldwater put the final nail in the coffin when they told Nixon that he had, at most, only 15 votes of support in the Senate — far fewer than the 34 he needed to avoid removal from office.

Next is “Bubba.” “Slick Willie.” “Teflon Bill.” “The Man From Hope.” “The Compromiser-In-Chief.”

William Jefferson Clinton was the 42nd. President of the United States, serving two terms from 1993–2001. When he defeated incumbent George H.W. Bush in 1992 he became the third-youngest president at age 46 and the first from the Baby Boomer generation.

He was at the controls over the longest period of peacetime economic expansion in American history. Clinton signed into law The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA); passed welfare reform and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program which provided health coverage for millions of children; and orchestrated a budget surplus between the years of 1998 and 2000 according to the Congressional Budget Office, the last three years of his presidency. ($69 billion in 1998; $126 billion in 1999; and $236 billion in 2000).

His focus on foreign policy took a backseat to his domestic agenda although the U.S. was embroiled in several international conflicts and involved in a host of diplomatic interventions during his two terms in office.

Clinton tended not to stray too far from pre-existing foreign policy except where it could play a role in improving the American economy.

NAFTA was passed and the World Trade Organization (WTO) established in an effort to increase the number of free market democracies in the world, Clinton’s way of facilitating open trade — his ‘policy of enlargement.’

He parried with Saddam Hussein over Iraq’s alleged rebuilding of weapons of mass destruction culminating in Operation Desert Fox in 1998; he unsuccessfully attempted to broker peace for Israel in the Middle East in 1993; he went toe-to-toe with Haiti’s military government in ’94; and he bollixed an inherited situation in Africa which involved increasing American troop presence only to withdraw all U.S. forces in March of 1994, standing by when a bloody civil war broke out in Rwanda the following month.

Neither did Clinton’s administration distinguish itself in the Balkans nor in the face of the escalating threats and acts of terrorism both at home (see February 1993 car bomb incident under the World Trade Center killing four and injuring thousands; and Oklahoma City bombing in April of 1995 killing 168 and injuring 680+) and abroad (two car bombs targeting U.S. forces in Saudi Arabia in ’95 and ’96 killing hundreds, along with a deadly attack on the U.S.S. Cole while it was being refueled in Yemen’s Aden harbor in 2000).

Despite leaving office with the highest end-of-office approval rating of any U.S. President since WWII, it was the Monica Lewinsky case which nearly buried him alive.

In 1998 Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives for perjury before a grand jury and obstruction of justice during a lawsuit against him, both charges related to a sex scandal with his DNA all over it, involving the then-22-year-old White House intern.

He was acquitted by the U.S. Senate in 1999 and served his complete term of office.

Which brings us to our nation’s 45th. President, the newly-elected Donald John Trump.

His first nearly-30 days in office have been chaotic to say the least — acceptable only to those living in an altered state of consciousness — an assessment he defiantly refutes claiming that his administration has been running like “a fine-tuned machine.”

Being mired in a fantasy world where “alternative facts” rule, in and of itself should constitute grounds for impeachment from the highest office in the land, case closed.

Signing a series of executive orders, some of which have been openly and successfully challenged in the courts is but the tip of the iceberg.

Trump’s administration has also instituted a temporary communication ban on the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Human Health Services instructing them to stop sending out news posts, specifically on social media.

The Departments of the Interior and Agriculture were similarly ordered to halt external communications and to consult with senior officials before addressing the news media.

It appears that Trump does not want to be distracted by the “dishonest media” while he struggles mightily to place — and keep — political appointees in position (or in queue).

So now in the year of our Lord, 2017 AD we must ask and be granted permission to speak or think independently. Smacks of Nazism but this has been noted before during the Trump campaign and sadly during his first 30 days in office.

Does this not represent the genesis of impeachable conduct?

“I don’t think there’s ever been a president elected who in this short period of time has done what we’ve done.” D.J.T. 02/16/2017.

(He’s right about that, but not what he meant).

Jobs brought back to the U.S.; “productive talks” with world leaders; a request of the military to hatch a plan to knock out ISIS; (unprecedented and ill-conceived) immigration efforts…

In black and white, here is a sampling of things Trump has done so far as president:

Issued Executive Order On Immigration —

A directive banning immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries. Judges in several states blocked parts of the order culminating in a full suspension of its implementation upheld by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Trump tweets “See You In Court,” and then announces that the administration would rescind the order and issue a replacement.

Selected A Supreme Court Nominee —

Trump announces that ideological conservative Judge Neil Gorsuch is his pick to fill the opening on the Supreme Court created by the passing of Justice Antonin Scalia. Republicans praise the choice and Democrats, still smarting from the Merrick Garland snub, vow to try to block the appointment. As for Gorsuch, he characterized Trump’s attacks on the federal judiciary as “disheartening” and “demoralizing.”

Reset Tone Of Relationship With World Leaders —

Meetings with Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada seemingly went well. Not so with respect to President Enrique Pena of Mexico who cancelled a meeting when Trump insulted him regarding the proposed border wall and payment of same, and Prime Minister of Australia Malcolm Turnbull with whom he had an unpleasant phone call regarding the “one-off exchange of refugees” previously negotiated with the Obama Administration. Trump characterized the swap as a “dumb deal” and vowed to “study it,” after needlessly informing Turnbull that the call was “his worst by far” of the day.

Endured Fallout Of Flynn Resignation, DeVos Confirmation And Puzder Withdrawal —

National Security Advisor Michael Flynn resigned after 24 days on the heels of a Washington Post report citing no fewer than nine sources stating that he had discussed U.S. sanctions in a phone call with the Russian ambassador, contrary to Flynn’s and the administration’s respective accounts; Education Secretary designate Betsy DeVos won Senate confirmation by the hair-on-the-chin-of-anyone’s-chinny-chin chin when Vice-President Mike Pence was forced to cast the deciding vote, the first time a vice-president was ever called upon to confirm a prospective member of the Cabinet; and Andrew Puzder, the fast food CEO and Trump’s choice to head the Department of Labor, withdrew his name from consideration in the wake of swirling controversy dogging him on several fronts. (Incidentally, NPR reports that of around 700 lower-level White House positions to be filled, the administration has provided nominations for roughly 35 or so).

Orchestrated And Presided Over Immigration And Customs Enforcement (ICE) Raids —

As advertised, the Trump regime has enacted policy contributing to a dramatic increase in reports of immigration raids by ICE, perhaps the most stark example of which involved an undocumented woman who was apprehended by immigration officials after she received a court protection order from her abusive partner. ICE characterized the reports of their checkpoints, sweeps and ‘roundups’ as “false, dangerous and irresponsible.”

Rolled Back Regulations —

Trump has repealed or scaled back several regulations. The most notable reversals include a rule restricting the operation of coal facilities near streams; the “fiduciary rule” protecting clients from duplicitous financial advisers; and a rule limiting gun access to those deemed to have mental health challenges as per the Social Security Administration. He has also signed an executive order requiring that for every new regulation written in his administration, two (pre-existing) should be repealed.

Called A Hastily-Arranged And Combative Press Conference (Thursday Feb. 16, 2017) —

In one of the more interesting moments of a dubiously memorable first 30 or so days the Commander-In-Chief took it upon himself to gather the media and tee off. He was critical of stories, many of which were sourced by leaking officials, that his campaign staff and others were connected to the Russian government. He feebly joked about shooting at a nearby Russian spy ship, summarily rebuffed a Jewish reporter inquiring about anti-Semitic threats and sarcastically asked an African-American reporter if she would set up a meeting with the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) after she explained to him what the CBC was. He was vehement in once again asserting that his administration was not in chaos but rather, a “fine-tuned machine.”

He has also very skillfully bolstered and cemented his reputation as a truth fabricator (charitable) and bald-faced liar (more accurate) giving fact-checkers around the world more work than they could handle in multiple lifetimes.

Trump was named in 42 federal lawsuits in his first eleven days in office according to CNN.

Patterns of acting outside the rule of the law have been easily spotted and the integrity of executive branch decision-making is questioned daily.

In the middle of February, former U.S. ambassador Douglas Kmiec penned a piece for The Huffington Post regarding the inescapability of a Trump impeachment and recommending the establishment of an executive president’s council made up of the last 5 living Commanders-In-Chief to begin the examination and review.

This after fewer than 30 days at the helm for Trump.

And it’s just started.

What do you think?

Could The Donald be #3?

And without a Senate acquittal this time?

The template is forming before our very eyes.

The mold is cast.

[Editor’s Note; This piece was written by Mr. Kaplan in February 2017.]

ADDENDUM: The impeachment of Donald Trump was initiated on December 18, 2019, when the House of Representatives approved articles of impeachment on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Trump was later acquitted by the Senate on these two counts of impeachment on February 5, 2020.