Has any US president ever been impeached? If so, why was he impeached?
Ever since Donald Trump has taken charge of the office, people have been talking about impeaching him. For those of you who don’t know, impeachment is a tool to oust a sitting president from the power. As per the Constitution of the United States, a president can be impeached if he has been found guilty of bribery, treason, misdemeanors, obstruction of justice, abuse of power and other major crimes.In case you are wondering if any president has ever been impeached from the office then the answer would be yes and no. Wondering what it means? Well, keep reading.Presidents Who Have Been Impeached#1. Andrew Johnson#2. Bill Clinton
Which presidents have been impeached?
Impeachment means that the person is being charged with a crime serious enough to have them removed from office. So being impeached does not mean the person has been removed, rather they went through with the trial to get removed.And to date, only two presidents have been through this process, Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton.Andrew Johnson was charged with 11 charges for "high crimes and misdemeanors." Most of the charges had to do with him obstructing Congressional reconstruction acts, engaging in libelous "inflammatory and scandalous harangues" against certain members in Congress as "traitors", and firing then Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. The firing of Stanton was what kicked off Congress's calls for impeachment. He was acquitted of all charges after 11 weeks..Senate hears impeachment charges against Andrew Johnson - Mar 13, 1868 - HISTORY.com Bill Clinton had 2 charges, 1 count of perjury to a grand jury, and 1 count of obstruction of justice. The perjury charge came from him lying under oath about have sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky. And the obstruction of justice in the Paula Jones case. Both charges failed to get 67 votes needed for a 2/3rds majority, and Clinton was aquitted of all charges after five weeks.President Clinton impeached - Dec 19, 1998 - HISTORY.com Richard Nixon would've been the third president to have been impeached had he not resigned. But I think many would agree that he probably would've been the first president to have been removed from office.
Why was Andrew Johnson impeached?
Andrew Johnson is sort of an example of the dysfunctional nature of the presidential system in USA. Johnson was a southern Democrat who had been included on the 1864 electoral ticket only as a means to retain the loyalty of southern Unionists.However, Johnson was completely incompetent and obstructionist. He was drunk at his inauguration. Johnson was a virulent racist who believed that giving equal rights to blacks was an attack upon “the white man”. He did everything he could to obstruct Congressional legislation for Reconstruction in the south.The only way that justice could have been done for the former slave population would be to transfer the lands of the plantation owning slavers to the freed population. These lands were ill-gotten gains obtained through stealing the labor of millions of people.Using the laws for confiscating the lands of the treasonous rebels, the Freedmen’s Bureau was collecting hundreds of thousands of acres which were intended to be distributed as homesteads to former slaves.Johnson simply gave the confiscated lands back to their former owners. Johnson allowed the former Confederates to regain control of government powers and enact new slave-like Black Codes.Johnson repeatedly veto’d laws that were intended to defend the rights of blacks and anti-Confederate whites in the south. Under a parliamentary system, the executive authority would lie with Congress, and Johnson could not engage in this obstruction of the majority will.But under the U.S. Constitution, the Republicans who controlled Congress could not simply remove him for obstruction of a political program that had majority support. He had to violate some law. So they passed a law to require their agreement to removal of members of the cabinet, and then impeached Johnson when he fired a former Lincoln holdover.
President Andrew Johnson crushed by the Constitution. Can someone please help me with the significance of this
Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act, so President Johnson couldn't fire Cabinet officials who'd been confirmed by the Senate. Johnson deemed the Act, which was passed just to make sure he wouldn't fire the Secretary of State (then next in line to succeed him as President), to be unconstitutional. He fired someone in violation of the Act and was impeached by the House. The Senate did not convict him, however. He was spared by one vote. (Side note: Don't ever tell me one vote doesn't matter!) (Other side note: Andrew Johnson is the only former President to become a Senator. Imagine being elected to the same body that almost pulled you out of the White House.)
Did president Richard Nixon resign, or was he impeached?
A few days before he resigned, a House committee found proof that Nixon had paid money to the Watergate burglars to keep them quiet, and that he had ordered the CIA to keep FBI from investigating him and his staff. This made it absolutely certain that he would be impeached (similar to being indicted) by the House and tried and convicted by the Senate. A number of his former supporters called on him to explain this to him over the next few days. Facing this certainty, he resigned to avoid impeachment and trial. He was not ever formally impeached or tried, however. Both Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton were formally impeached, and both were tried and acquitted. No U.S. president has ever been impeached, tried, and found guilty.
What president went jail?
No US Presidents have gone to jail. Two have been impeached: (Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton) but were ultimately not removed from office. One President was basically forced to resign (Richard Nixon) but afterwards was pardoned by his successor (Gerald Ford) eliminating any possibility that Nixon would go to jail. There were scandals during some other Presidencies (such as Warren Harding) but nothing that forced a President, either then or afterward, to go to jail.