Recently, a large number of American politicians accused Trump and of inciting riots and tried to launch a second impeachment against Trump. On the evening of January 13, the House of Representatives and passed the impeachment case against Trump, marking Trump becoming the first president in American history to be impeached twice. However, before Trump, there were three presidents who were nearly deposed in American history, and what was their final result? What impact did their deeds have on the later America?
Andrew Johnson : The unlucky president in the shadow of Lincoln
The first impeached president in American history is the successor to America's greatest president Lincoln: Andrew Johnson. Johnson was the governor of Tennessee in his early years and also served as a senator of and of Tennessee. After the outbreak of the Civil War, in order to show loyalty to the Confederacy, most of the Southern Senators withdrew from Congress, and Johnson became the only Southern Senator who did not withdraw at the time. Johnson's loyalty to the Union eventually gained the trust of Lincoln and , and was nominated as a vice presidential candidate by Lincoln in 1864.
On April 15, 1865, the legendary President Lincoln was assassinated in a theater, and the assassin who was supposed to assassinate Johnson was temporarily timid, so that Johnson escaped and inherited Lincoln's position. However, the "reconstruction policy" designed by Johnson after he took office has aroused public outrage. This policy maximized tolerance for the remaining forces of the southern confederacy , resulting in the racial perception in the south not being improved, and many of Lincoln's efforts during his lifetime were destroyed.
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In 1865 and 1866, the defeated Confederate states promulgated a number of laws that discriminated against African Americans, also known as the "Black Act", restricting African Americans’ right to vote and many other basic human rights, Johnson said. Turn a blind eye. With Johnson's acquiescence, a large number of open or secret racist organizations have appeared in the southern states, of which the infamous "KKK" is the largest.
Ironically, the headquarters of the KKK is located in Tennessee, where Johnson once lived. In connection with Johnson's Southern origin, the parliamentary pro-equality Congress could not understand Johnson's connivance in the South, accusing him of being a "running dog" in the South. Johnson's relationship with Congress has also become worse and worse. After
, Johnson and congressmen again diverged in the "Civil Rights Act of 1866." The bill establishes that any person born in the United States is a U.S. citizen regardless of skin color and has the same rights to ensure that African Americans can integrate into American society as soon as possible after the Civil War.
Johnson exposed his racist nature at this time and rejected the bill twice. However, the two houses eventually voted against Johnson's veto power by a two-thirds majority, making the Civil Rights Act of 1866 officially become law, and the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution that changed American history was released two years later. .
(Theodore Davis's "Impeachment of Andrew Johnson")
In 1867, Congress passed the "Terms of Service Act" and prohibited the president from changing cabinet members without the approval of the Senate and . However, Johnson turned a deaf ear to his opposition to this bill, and in 1868 announced the dismissal of War Secretary Edwin Stanton. At this time, members of Congress dissatisfied with Johnson completely broke out. On February 24, 1868, the House of Representatives passed the impeachment case against Johnson, listing Johnson’s 11 counts.
In March, the Senate started the impeachment trial. Fortunately for Johnson, after two months of debate, he escaped by one vote, avoiding the fate of being impeached and stepped down. However, this cannot change the fact that Johnson's reputation has been wiped out, and he eventually stepped down after the end of his term.
Because of the age, people now have no impression of Johnson. Even when the word "impeachment" is mentioned, the first thing people think of is the more dramatic scandals of Nixon or Clinton. Compared with Nixon’s diplomatic achievements and Clinton’s economic deeds, Johnson was not only completely overshadowed by the dazzling light of the predecessor Lincoln, but also did not make any outstanding achievements worthy of being memorable during his tenure.Performance (except for the purchase of Alaska). It is no wonder that this unfortunate president has been at the bottom of the rankings of major US presidents all the year round, in sharp contrast with Lincoln's long standing at the top of the list.
Richard Nixon: Take the lead without waiting for impeachment
Strictly speaking, Nixon was not really impeached, but was the first to resign when he was threatened. However, during Nixon's tenure, he made many moves that were recorded in American history. Nixon announced the withdrawal of troops from Vietnam and , and actively threw an olive branch to China, becoming the first US president in history to visit mainland China. The strengthening of Nixon's relationship with China also caused the Soviet Union's fear of being threatened by the Sino-US alliance and slowed its attitude towards the United States. In a sense, it also eased the Cold War atmosphere.
People were paying attention to Nixon's glamorous foreign policy, but suddenly they discovered that he was secretly doing bad things at home. On June 17, 1972, Washington DC police arrested five mysterious men who sneaked into the headquarters of the Democratic Party in the Watergate Building. Subsequently, an anonymous person who claimed to be a "deep throat" (later discovered to be the deputy director of the FBI) revealed to the Washington Post that these arrested persons were related to White House , and Nixon was therefore involved in the incident.
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At the beginning of the incident, Nixon tried his best to excuse him and tried to classify the incident as a general political rumor. However, as many of his men were convicted, Nixon's status began to be gradually lost. In July 1973, former White House aide Alexander Butterfield confirmed that Nixon had requested the installation of automatic recording systems in various offices of the White House. Z1z Watergate incident Special Attorney Archiper Cox therefore asked the White House to hand over the tapes. Nixon refused to hand over the tapes, and a confrontation with the judicial department formed.
In order to avoid handing over the tapes, on October 20, 1973, Nixon ordered Attorney General Eliot Richardson to fire Cox. What Nixon did not expect was that Richardson rejected Nixon and announced his immediate resignation. Nixon then ordered Deputy Secretary William Ruckelshaus to dismiss Cox, but he did not expect that Ruckelshaus, like Richardson, also chose to resign after refusing.
Nixon was so embarrassed that he had no choice but to ask the deputy undersecretary to carry out the matter. The incident was called the "Saturday Night Massacre." In addition to greatly damaging Nixon's personal image, it also confirmed that there was no one around Nixon available.
(Source: History Channel website)
Until April 1974, Nixon finally compromised and handed over the edited text. The House Judiciary Committee also launched a hearing on the impeachment of the President in May. After passing three impeachment motions, the Supreme Court unanimously approved the requirement that Nixon must surrender the entire contents of the tape, not just the text. In the tape, Nixon's connection with the Watergate incident was completely exposed and became the most conclusive evidence of the case.
Faced with the political treason and congressional scrutiny, Nixon finally could not withstand the pressure and decided to resign before Congress impeached himself in order to save his last face. On August 8, 1974, Nixon made a televised speech and became the first president in American history to resign during his term.
Nixon was completely pardoned by the successor president Ford after his resignation, and he was also welcomed after leaving office, especially in diplomacy. When Deng Xiaoping visited the United States in 1979, he even specified that he must meet Nixon at the White House, or he would have to go to California to find him in person. The then President Carter, who didn't want to invite Nixon, had no choice but to invite him. Historians also generally stated that Nixon’s outstanding diplomatic achievements are unmatched by any US president after World War II.
(Source: White House Photo Archives)
The most direct follow-up impact of the Watergate Incident is that the public’s trust in the government has since decreased, and the government has therefore begun to significantly weaken the president’s authority. After the Watergate incident, Congress promulgated a number of items such as the "War Powers Act" and the "Budget and Interception Control Act".The law restricts the president’s war power and financial power, as well as the establishment of the "Government Department Ethics Act" and the establishment of a special prosecutor system for the president.
The term "Watergate" has since become people's most direct impression of "impeachment." Although Nixon was not actually impeached in the end, the term "Watergate" was repeatedly mentioned every time he was impeached, which shows the impact of this incident in American history. Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton : All achievements are destroyed by scandal once
Clinton has always been considered one of the most popular American presidents. During the election campaign, Clinton himself was not favored, because the then President George W. Bush was wearing many auras such as defeating the Soviet Union and winning the Gulf War. However, Clinton finally defeated the Republican Party with the slogan "Idiot, the problem is the economy!" Z3z
After taking office, Clinton lived up to expectations. He drastically reformed the economy, which enabled the United States to embark on the highway of Internet technology development, drove the economic operation and international influence of the United States, and established the status of the United States as a major IT power.
If there is no "zipper door" incident, then history's evaluation of Clinton would be unimaginably high.
In 1996, the U.S. government budget was met with fierce bipartisan disputes in Congress. In order to save money, a large number of White House staff were sent home, and only a few were left on duty. It was at this time that Clinton met with Monica Lewinsky who came to the White House for an internship. The two soon had sex and maintained this close relationship for several months. At this time, someone in the White House has begun to notice that the relationship between the two is unusual.
(Source: White House)
In early 1998, Lewinsky and submitted written testimony during an investigation and denied that they had any improper relationship with Clinton. However, Lewinsky's best friend Linda Trepp betrayed Lewinsky during the investigation and confessed her telephone conversation records with Lewinsky, which mentioned a lot of her special relationship with Clinton. At this point, the relationship between Clinton and Lewinsky was thoroughly exposed.
However, it is not the scandal itself that caused the public's extremely negative sentiment towards Clinton, but Clinton's open lie in order to protect his reputation. Clinton denied any sexual relations with Lewinsky in the initial investigation. However, what he didn't expect was that Lewinsky kept a blue dress that Clinton gave her, which had Clinton's semen on it.
Lewins basically wanted to regard this evidence as insurance for his relationship with Clinton, but he did not expect that it would eventually become proof that Clinton lied. Clinton had no choice but to admit defeat and admitted his mistake in a public speech.
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Clinton’s two completely different remarks have given the Republicans the best reason to call for his impeachment. Although some people have persuaded Clinton to resign early like Nixon, Clinton chose to stay in the White House and wait for his destiny. On December 19, 1998, the House of Representatives passed the impeachment case against Clinton, accusing Clinton of suspicion of perjury and obstruction of justice.
On January 7, 1999, the Senate began the Clinton trial. The case has gone through a long debate, and the whole process lasted more than a month. If convicted, Clinton will need to step down immediately. In the end, the Senate began voting on February 12. Both the crimes of perjury and obstruction of justice were rejected due to insufficient votes, and Clinton escaped.
What is interesting is that despite Clinton's huge scandal, according to public opinion polls, Americans who support impeachment and conviction are not in the majority. This phenomenon proves that although people are angry about Clinton's integrity issues, they have not questioned Clinton's ability to govern.
In the 2011 Gallup survey, Clinton is still the third greatest president in the minds of many Americans, even surpassing Kennedy and Washington. However, many experts also believe that Clinton's dishonesty seriously affected the reputation of Democrats, and eventually led to the defeat of the Democratic Party's Gore to the Republican Party's Bush in the 2000 presidential election.
Donald Trump: The only president who has been impeached twice in history
The impeachment at the end of 2019 is not the first threat Trump has faced. As early as the Russian gate incident broke out, there was an impeachment of Tron in Congress. Pu's voice. The fuse that ultimately led to the passage of impeachment in the House of Representatives was the scandal between Trump and Ukraine’s President Vladimir Zelensky.
In May 2019, Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani pressured Zelensky to investigate the illegal evidence related to the Biden family in order to help Trump in the 2020 election . In return, the United States will provide military assistance to Ukraine.
In July, Trump personally called Zelensky and encouraged him to contact people who are investigating Biden's insider information. Prior to this, he withheld $400 million in military aid to Ukraine. Trump’s behavior is a serious violation of the U.S. Election Law, which prohibits foreign entities from helping to achieve his own political goals.
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In September 2020, the Intelligence Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives received an anonymous report letter to make the situation public. Congress began investigating the evidence related to Trump's impeachment to prepare for the next impeachment. On December 18, 2019, the U.S. House of Representatives passed an impeachment case on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, making Trump the third impeached president in U.S. history (if not Nixon). On January 21, 2020, the Senate began a formal trial of Trump's impeachment case. After more than ten days of trial, the Senate officially confirmed Trump's innocence after voting on February 5.
And what happened recently is the second impeachment vote against Trump. On January 6, 2021, after Trump supporters violently stormed the U.S. Capitol, the political circles generally accused Trump of being behind the scenes, accusing Trump's remarks of being too inflammatory and causing the riots. On the evening of January 13, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a vote on Trump's impeachment case, and the Senate will conduct an impeachment trial against Trump at 1 pm on January 20 at the earliest.
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Although two-thirds of the senators’ consent is needed to convict Trump, the current bipartisanship in the Senate is 55 or more, but since many Republicans have already stood up Expressed support for impeachment, including Senate leader Mickey McConnell and former Vice President Dick Cheney’s daughter Liz Cheney. Therefore, in the future, we will be able to see the first successful impeachment in the United States. president.
At that time, although Trump has resigned, this move will not only leave a stain on his performance, but also prevent Trump from holding public office again in the future and thinking about Trump's 2024. Return this year will be a devastating blow.
