Is the stage being set to impeach President Trump?

Voices are being heard and pressure is being built, within and outside the United States of America, to halt what is being termed as the madness of Donald Trump. Be that his domestic series of unguarded Executive Orders or the unprecedented sidelining of Congress and the bypassing of the Supreme Court. 

President Trump’s outright military and financial support to the Zionist leader, Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel, against the innocent people of Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and the Islamic Republic of Iran has also been condemned and bitterly criticised by Senators and Congressmen. The world community has also rejected his policies in the Middle East, particularly his aggressive designs to attack Iran once again.

Most recently, his military adventure against Venezuela received severe criticism and condemnation from the majority of European leaders. At home, Representative Al Green blasted Trump saying: “He can be impeached after Venezuela strike.” 

If impeached again, Trump would be the only unfortunate President of the United States to be impeached three times for his deeds, which were violations of the US Constitution.

America has a strange track record of impeaching its presidents. So far, four elected presidents faced impeachment. The first being Andrew Johnson in 1868. The main reason for his impeachment was a real controversy over the powers of the Federal government.
It may be recalled that in 1867, Congress passed a law that restricted the president's power to fire selected federal officials. President Johnson threw the law into the dustbin and proceeded to fire some federal officials. As a consequence, Andrew Johnson was impeached in 1868, making him the first U.S. president to face this formal charge. But to his good luck, Johnson was acquitted by the US Senate, and he remained in office to finish his tenure.

It may be interesting to note that this law, passed by a Republican-dominated Congress over Johnson's veto, depriving the president from firing Senate-confirmed cabinet members without congressional approval.

The second US president to be impeached was Bill Clinton. After the investigation, the House voted to send two articles of impeachment against Clinton to the Senate. One of the charges was perjury, while the other was obstruction of justice. On December 19, 1998, the House voted to impeach Clinton by a vote of 228–206 on the perjury charge and 221–212 on the obstruction charge.
Bill Clinton had to face impeachment due to a lawsuit alleging sexual misconduct by Clinton before he was president. As part of that lawsuit, Clinton testified that he had not had an extramarital affair with Monica Lewinsky, who had been an intern at the white House. When evidence of the affair was reported by major media outlets, an investigation into Clinton on other matters expanded in scope to include whether Clinton had lied under oath. Lewinsky, who had previously testified that there was no affair, was persuaded by the FBI discussing her relationship with Clinton. She later testified that she and Clinton had indeed had an affair. Clinton ultimately admitted to lying under oath.

Another US President who faced an impeachment situation was Richard Nixon. The White House covered up the president’s role in what became known as the Watergate Scandal. He was named for the Watergate complex that housed the offices of the Democratic National Committee. It was the scene of a botched burglary in June 1972 when political operatives hired by the Committee to re-elect the President tried to get information that Nixon could use in the 1972 presidential election. Over the course of the next two years, the breadth and depth of Nixon’s involvement became evident. In the wake of criminal indictments and resignations of top aides, televised hearings that riveted the nation, and adverse Supreme Court rulings, Nixon had to resign on August 9, 1974. Nixon made a serious effort to opt for resigning instead of being impeached.

But as the luck would have it, Donald Trump has the unique record of having been impeached twice before. First in 2019 and then in 2021.  

In August 2019, an anonymous person, later revealed to be an official of the Central Intelligence Agency, filed a complaint alleging that in a July 25 phone call with the newly elected president, Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, he had attempted to extort a promise from the Ukrainian President to interfere in the 2020 US elections on Trump’s behalf. Trump strongly implied that $400 million in congressionally mandated security assistance to Ukraine would not be provided unless Zelensky carried out two requests, which Trump introduced by saying, “I would like you to do us a favour though.”

In September 2019, the speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi opened impeachment proceedings, saying that Trump sought foreign assistance to interfere in a U.S. election constituted a betrayal of his oath of office and therefore warranted a formal impeachment inquiry.

In December, the Judiciary Committee drafted two articles of impeachment against Trump, one for abuse of power and the other for obstruction of Congress. Those articles were adopted by the House in two party-line votes on December 18 (230–197 on abuse of power; 229–198 on obstruction of Congress). The votes made Trump the third president in U.S. history to be impeached. Trump was acquitted by the Senate in February 2020 (on votes of 52–48 and 53–47, respectively).

On January 6, 2021, Trump addressed a rally near the White House where he encouraged thousands to attack the Capitol building, where the ceremonial certification of the 2020 election, which was won by Joe Biden, was to beheld. He also ordered the mob to “fight like hell” or “you’re not going to have a country anymore.” Within hours, the Capitol was under siege, as rioters stormed the building and sought out leaders including Pelosi and Vice Pres.

On January 13, 2021, the House of Representatives, by a vote of 232–197, adopted a single article of impeachment against Trump for “incitement of insurrection,” making him the first president in U.S. history to be impeached twice.

Is the time ripe for Donald Trump to be impeached the third time?