1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,038 When America’s founding fathers were debating how to set up a brand-new government, 2 00:00:04,038 --> 00:00:09,039 they ran into a problem: What should happen if a president, in Benjamin 3 00:00:09,048 --> 00:00:13,928 Franklin’s words, has “rendered himself obnoxious?” 4 00:00:14,094 --> 00:00:16,904 Most countries didn’t have elected leaders. 5 00:00:16,904 --> 00:00:18,197 Or ways to get rid of them, if necessary. 6 00:00:18,197 --> 00:00:23,091 So Franklin and the framers turned to a provision of British common law known as impeachment: 7 00:00:23,091 --> 00:00:25,098 Trial, conviction, punishment. 8 00:00:25,098 --> 00:00:31,067 In Great Britain, impeachment could be brought against anybody, any citizen. 9 00:00:31,949 --> 00:00:36,660 And it also could result in any punishment, including death. 10 00:00:36,066 --> 00:00:41,128 Michael Gerhardt is a constitutional law professor who literally wrote the book in impeachment. 11 00:00:42,028 --> 00:00:46,967 So they put impeachment in the constitution and then set up a whole series of unique american 12 00:00:47,219 --> 00:00:48,380 features in it. 13 00:00:48,038 --> 00:00:52,085 The constitution lays out three offenses for which any federal official, including the 14 00:00:52,085 --> 00:00:53,123 President, can be impeached. 15 00:00:54,023 --> 00:00:58,034 The first two, treason and bribery, are pretty straightforward. 16 00:00:58,034 --> 00:01:00,092 Treason means helping enemies of the United States. 17 00:01:00,092 --> 00:01:03,157 Bribery, taking money or gifts in exchange for a political favor. 18 00:01:04,057 --> 00:01:10,100 And the last phrase, other high crimes and misdemeanors, is not defined in the constitution 19 00:01:11,000 --> 00:01:17,007 But these were thought to be serious offenses against the Republic, and serious breaches 20 00:01:17,007 --> 00:01:18,126 of trust. 21 00:01:18,189 --> 00:01:22,271 For three U.S. presidents, Andrew Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Bill Clinton, the question 22 00:01:23,009 --> 00:01:27,680 of whether to impeach and remove them from office centered around whether their behavior 23 00:01:27,068 --> 00:01:32,467 fit in this third category of high crimes and misdemeanors. 24 00:01:33,079 --> 00:01:37,020 The process of Impeachment has to start in the House of Representatives. 25 00:01:37,002 --> 00:01:40,037 Any member can introduce an impeachment resolution. 26 00:01:40,037 --> 00:01:55,136 A resolution, that President George W. Bush be impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors 27 00:01:55,469 --> 00:01:57,566 But plenty, like this one, go nowhere. 28 00:01:58,439 --> 00:02:02,410 That’s because impeachment charges, have to be approved by a majority of the House 29 00:02:02,041 --> 00:02:03,780 Judiciary Committee. 30 00:02:04,149 --> 00:02:08,660 Next, the full House of Representatives votes on whether to impeach. 31 00:02:08,066 --> 00:02:11,154 If a simple majority votes yes, the President is officially impeached. 32 00:02:12,054 --> 00:02:16,085 But that doesn’t mean they lose the presidency. 33 00:02:16,085 --> 00:02:18,178 That decision happens in a Senate trial. 34 00:02:19,078 --> 00:02:20,175 The Senators act as the jury. 35 00:02:21,075 --> 00:02:25,158 They hear evidence from both sides And if 67% of those Senators vote to to convict, 36 00:02:26,058 --> 00:02:28,112 the President is removed from office. 37 00:02:29,012 --> 00:02:31,059 This has never actually happened. 38 00:02:31,059 --> 00:02:36,062 In 1863, a House majority voted to impeach Andrew Johnson for firing is Secretary of 39 00:02:36,089 --> 00:02:37,089 War. 40 00:02:37,089 --> 00:02:40,178 This was after months of conflict after Reconstruction following the civil war. 41 00:02:41,078 --> 00:02:46,115 The only other president impeached by the House was Bill Clinton in 1998. 42 00:02:47,015 --> 00:02:53,023 But in both cases, not enough Senators voted to actually remove them from office. 43 00:02:53,023 --> 00:02:58,072 Johnson was only one vote short, but in Clinton’s case, it wasn’t even close 44 00:02:58,072 --> 00:03:04,098 The Respondent, William Jefferson Clinton, is not guilty as charged in the Senate article 45 00:03:04,098 --> 00:03:05,098 of impeachment. 46 00:03:05,098 --> 00:03:09,109 That’s because votes in Clinton’s impeachment in the House and trial in the Senate were 47 00:03:10,009 --> 00:03:12,084 split almost completely by party. 48 00:03:12,084 --> 00:03:17,126 part of the disagreement within the Senate had to do with the context in which Clinton's 49 00:03:18,026 --> 00:03:21,051 actions had taken place. 50 00:03:21,051 --> 00:03:25,069 The whole thing started when Clinton was sued for sexual harassment by a woman named Paula 51 00:03:25,069 --> 00:03:28,132 Jones, who worked for him when he was Governor of Arkansas. 52 00:03:29,032 --> 00:03:33,095 In a deposition for that case, Jones’ lawyers asked Clinton if he’d had a sexual relationship 53 00:03:33,095 --> 00:03:37,103 with a different employee-- a White House intern named Monica Lewinsky. 54 00:03:38,003 --> 00:03:39,003 Clinton said he hadn’t. 55 00:03:39,003 --> 00:03:43,082 I did not have sexual relations with that woman. 56 00:03:43,082 --> 00:03:44,087 Ms. Lewinsky. 57 00:03:44,087 --> 00:03:45,096 But that wasn’t true. 58 00:03:46,077 --> 00:03:51,124 I had intimate contact with her that was inappropriate. 59 00:03:52,024 --> 00:03:54,030 The house will be in order. 60 00:03:54,084 --> 00:04:02,115 Republicans in the house argued Clinton should be impeached for lying under oath. 61 00:04:03,015 --> 00:04:08,033 What the defenders want to do is lower the standards by which we judge this president, 62 00:04:08,033 --> 00:04:12,039 and lower the standards for our society by doing so. 63 00:04:12,039 --> 00:04:16,055 Democrats disagreed that the offense was serious enough to be called a “high crime.” 64 00:04:16,055 --> 00:04:19,072 At one point, they walked out of the chamber in protest. 65 00:04:19,072 --> 00:04:26,081 There is one small segment on the far-right, who have lost all objectivity, and are determined 66 00:04:27,053 --> 00:04:29,138 to impeach the President at all costs. 67 00:04:30,038 --> 00:04:35,135 House Resolution 6, 11, resolved, that William Jefferson Clinton, President of the United 68 00:04:36,035 --> 00:04:39,131 States, is impeached, for high crimes and misdemeanors. 69 00:04:40,031 --> 00:04:43,070 But Clinton’s popularity didn’t really suffer. 70 00:04:43,007 --> 00:04:48,035 There was not a sense the American people are demanding that he be tossed out of office. 71 00:04:48,098 --> 00:04:51,157 Not a single Democratic Senator voted to remove Clinton from office. 72 00:04:52,057 --> 00:04:55,073 Typically, you need to have members of more than one party 73 00:04:55,073 --> 00:04:59,168 That’s one of the major differences between Clinton’s case and President Richard Nixon’s. 74 00:05:00,068 --> 00:05:05,153 Over the course of several months in 1973, members of Congress, and the American people, 75 00:05:06,053 --> 00:05:10,075 learned about Nixon’s possible involvement in a break-in at the offices of the Democratic 76 00:05:10,075 --> 00:05:11,100 National Committee. 77 00:05:12,000 --> 00:05:16,012 By the time the charges had been shown to have some evidence supporting them, the public 78 00:05:16,012 --> 00:05:27,103 began to kind of render a judgement against Nixon, which was, his popularity plummeted. 79 00:05:28,003 --> 00:05:37,061 That evidence came out because Republicans, members of Nixon’s own party, in both the 80 00:05:37,061 --> 00:05:47,103 House and Senate, called for investigations into the President’s behavior. 81 00:05:48,003 --> 00:05:52,064 In the House Judiciary Committee, Republicans joined with Democrats to approve Articles 82 00:05:52,064 --> 00:06:01,071 of Impeachment against Nixon. 83 00:06:02,034 --> 00:06:13,119 But Nixon resigned before the full house could vote on impeachment because Republican leaders 84 00:06:14,019 --> 00:06:17,050 had told him there was no way he’d survive. 85 00:06:17,005 --> 00:06:22,014 Which explains why no president has ever been removed from office by impeachment. 86 00:06:23,004 --> 00:06:27,012 For that to happen, the president doesn’t just have to commit some high crime or misdemeanor. 87 00:06:28,002 --> 00:06:30,074 He has to lose his own party. 88 00:06:30,092 --> 00:06:32,186 In which case, history suggests he’ll see himself out.