Will Obama Be Impeached?
While some Democrats recently claimed that Republicans will try to impeach President Barack Obama, that outcome is unlikely, according to an expert interviewed by The Christian Post.
President Andrew Johnson was impeached by the House, but acquitted by the Senate. The same happened to President Bill Clinton. President Richard Nixon resigned before he could be impeached.
These men were brought (or almost brought) to trial because of actions that were "obstructive to justice"… so why is there so much talk of President Barack Obama being impeached?
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The wave of impeachment talk began when former Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin released "The Case for Obama's Impeachment," an opinion piece for Foxnews.com where she counted at least 11 ways that Obama has "abused and violated the public trust and disregarded the constitution." Her accounts of his offenses included "freeing terrorist prisoners in a time of war when they can return to the battlefield to kill our troops," "getting us into a war with Libya without Congress' approval," and "giving guns to Mexican Cartels."
With such visceral accusations, one might think there has to be some truth to these claims. Susan Low Bloch, professor of Law at Georgetown University, does not think so.
"The Constitution says one can be impeached for treason, bribery, and other high crimes and misdemeanors." Bloch said in a phone interview. "The official has to really have done something quite wrong. If you move to impeach someone, you are undermining the democratic election. It should only be used when the president has done something so bad that it warrants his removal from office. It should not be a motion of disappointment. That really is a drastic remedy."
Bloch, who teaches constitutional law, does not agree with Palin's claims and thinks it is counterproductive to use this measure at a time like this.
"It doesn't compare at all to what Nixon did. Which was a misuse of his office. It's just a waste of time, energy, and money. The idea of impeaching a president and removing a democratically elected person is to get them out early. There's no grounds for removing him earlier. And that's what the impeachment process is for. When you cannot stand to wait to until the next election. With Nixon it was important to get him out of office. It should not be taken lightly."
In an article by The Hill, Speaker of the House John Boehner said the talk about impeachment of Obama was a Democratic talking point used to raise money.
"It's all a scam started by Democrats at the White House," Boehner said at a Republican leadership press conference. "This whole talk about impeachment is coming from the president's own staff and coming from Democrats on Capitol Hill. Why? Because they're trying to rally their own people to give money and show up in this year's elections."
Boehner went on to disagree with Palin's stance on impeaching the president. "We have no plans to impeach the president. We have no future plans." he assured.
Even if Democrats did not make the entire thing up as a ploy to stir support for upcoming elections, that does not mean they did not seize the opportunity to profit from it.
According to a report on Vox.com, Democrats have raised over $2 Million from emails that tout the Republicans fervor to impeach Obama. Republicans wanting to oust the president from office works just fine for Democrats, who maintain that the Republican's narrative is radical and they want to take drastic measures.
No matter what the case, it does not seem likely that Obama will be removed from office.
