In today’s day and age, sexual assault accusations are horrifyingly normalized. With the rise of the #MeToo and #TimesUp Movement, it’s no surprise that sexual harassment is at the forefront of everyone’s mind. It seems like not a day goes by without new accounts unveiling the truth about many of the most loved members of society- including politicians. During President Clinton’s second term, numerous scandals arose about him and his wife, including shady real estate deals, fundraising violations, and claims of sexual harassment. As a result of an investigation, the Republican-led Congress moved forward with impeachment proceedings in 1998.
Impeachment is a process that starts first with the House of Representatives, and any member can move to launch an impeachment proceeding. After that, the speaker of the House decides whether or not to move with the proceeding. If he or she does approve the motion, then a House Judiciary Committee is assigned to investigate. After their investigation is concluded, a public hearing is scheduled for the House to vote on the articles of impeachment. However, during the investigation, a president can continue his position. In the case of Bill Clinton, he continued to serve until the end of his term in 2000 even though the impeachment process had started in 1988. Although he was impeached by the House, he was acquitted by the then Democrat-led Congress. The impeachment proceedings only make their way to the Senate after the House votes in favor of impeachment. Although only a simple majority is needed in the House, the Senate needs a two-thirds majority in favor in order to impeach a president. Bill Clinton was eventually acquitted by the Senate, and was simply impeached but not removed. If he had been removed, he would not have been sent to jail- the Senate does not have the power to do that.
Many parallels have been drawn between Bill Clinton and past or present presidents. Clinton was the first president to be impeached since 1868, when Andrew Johnson was also impeached and acquitted by a one vote margin. Many historians believe that Clinton’s impeachment was much more petty and unsatisfying than Andrew Johnson’s. While Johnson’s actions could be argued to have violated the Constitution when he breached the Tenure of Office Act and removed an appointed official, the impeachment proceedings against Bill Clinton showed no violations and raised the question of whether or not he had committed an impeachable crime. To historians and Democrats alike, Clinton’s actions were abhorrent, but the attacks were unjustifiable and was an example of partisanship. Additionally, Clinton’s popularity was high at the time, and it was reported that a huge majority of Americans had wanted the Senate to resolve the impeachment case without a trial and removal from office. Many even disapproved of the House’s decision to impeach Clinton. Clearly, the debate goes on today about whether or not Clinton deserved to be impeached. Parallels can also be drawn between Clinton and Nixon, both of whom underwent impeachment proceedings. However, Nixon had resigned from office before investigation had concluded, and was never actually impeached.
Today, President Trump is at the forefront of these sexual harassment scandals and faces calls of impeachment periodically. The numerous accusations against him have emboldened many other women to come forth with their stories too- not against Trump, but Clinton. Many are starting to believe the victims, like Juanita Broaddrick more, and regret their decision to not push Clinton to resign in 1998. To his credit, Clinton has stayed silent and away from the flames on the topic. While society has definitely moved forward since the1990s and has become more accepting of women and their experiences, it is still unclear if President Trump will face the same proceedings Clinton did. Clinton’s trial and failure set a critical precedent and shows that impeachment is never an easy process and often fraught with disagreement on all sides.
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Jayde, this was a very well written and interesting post. I really liked how you connected the scandal to multiple topics that are relevant to the current political climate like Donald Trump and how impeachment is received by the public. I was wondering, if you had been a member of Congress would you have voted to impeach and remove President Clinton? Seeing as how a President can be impeached under a vague accusation of high crimes and misdemeanor I am curious to see if others would have wanted Clinton removed from office. Thanks for such an interesting post!
ReplyDeleteJayde, this was a very well written and interesting post. I really liked how you connected the scandal to multiple topics that are relevant to the current political climate like Donald Trump and how impeachment is received by the public. I was wondering, if you had been a member of Congress would you have voted to impeach and remove President Clinton? Seeing as how a President can be impeached under a vague accusation of high crimes and misdemeanor I am curious to see if others would have wanted Clinton removed from office. Thanks for such an interesting post!
ReplyDeleteJayde, this was a really interesting post. I really liked how you related this to today and Donald Trump. I find it really interesting how Clinton got into so much trouble for such seemingly trivial actions while today we are dealing Donald Trump who has been accused of things far worse and the only thing we've done about it is oooh and ahhh about it. Like, you would think that Trump would have been impeached sooner for the things he has been accused of doing.
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