Overview
3-2 Discussion: Impeachment and Partisanship
The Constitution allows for the removal of a president or other federal official. This process is part of the system of checks and balances. A president or other official must be impeached and convicted before being removed from office. An individual can be impeached for committing high crimes and misdemeanors while in office.
Only three presidents have been impeached and tried in U.S. history. One president was impeached and tried twice, totaling four presidential impeachments. All three men committed the accused criminal acts, yet none were convicted. There is room to discuss the role of partisanship in Congress in each situation.
For this discussion, choose one of the presidential impeachment/trials provided in the resources. Videos and textbook readings provide relevant information for this assignment.
In your initial discussion post, describe the crime the president was accused of committing. The focus of this post is not to debate whether the crime happened. Simply describe the accusation the president faced.
- Discuss evidence of partisanship in impeachment by the House and the Senate trial process.
- Answer these questions:
- Do the votes to impeach in the House and convict in the Senate reflect excessive partisanship? Use facts to support your position.
- Were the political opponents of the president making a big deal out of nothing?
- Or were the president's supporters trying to ignore illegal acts to protect one of their own?
Your grade on this assignment reflects the quality of your initial post and at least two response posts to your classmates. Throughout the discussion, use proper writing techniques and cite your sources in APA format. Refer to the module or external resources to support your work in the initial post and your critical responses. Be sure to attribute each resource you used with APA citations.