The Myth of the Failed Impeachment Backlash
I keep seeing people say that if impeaching (or removing… people use the terms interchangeably though they don't mean the same thing) Donald Trump fails then he will be “unstoppable.” They cite experts and historians on this, though never by name. Probably because there is no evidence or precedent that this actually happens.
Let’s look at the three cases we have of presidential impeachment. Both Bill Clinton and Andrew Johnson were impeached by the House of Representatives, though not ultimately voted to be removed by the Senate. You could consider these the “failed” impeachments. We also have Richard Nixon, who resigned before he could be impeached and removed, which he almost certainly was going to be.
Clinton seems to be poster boy for this, so we’ll begin with him. Formal impeachment proceedings were launched against Clinton in 1998. Clinton was halfway through his second term, which he had won handily by 8.5 percentage points. His impeachment moved incredibly fast by government standards, and lasted only from October 1998 to January 1999. For comparison, the third season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in 1998/1999 ran longer than Clinton’s impeachment hearings.
The impeachment had just started when the 1998 midterm elections were held. Whether they should count or not because of that is a personal opinion. For what it’s worth, this election was the first midterm since 1934 where the president’s party picked up seats in the House of Representatives (5), though Republicans retained control of both chambers.
Read more: https://www.houstonpress.com/news/impeachments-generally-hurt-the-presidents-party-badly-11360498
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