WEBVTT - How Impeachment Works 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:04.600 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from House Stuff Works 0:00:04.600 --> 0:00:14.000 dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, 0:00:14.080 --> 0:00:17.159 There's Charles W Chuck Bryant, there's Jerry over there, and 0:00:17.200 --> 0:00:28.440 this is business Baby Stuff you Should Know on Impeachment. Yeah, guilty. Uh, 0:00:30.320 --> 0:00:32.520 how how are you doing? First? Let's get the pleasant 0:00:32.520 --> 0:00:34.479 treats out of the way. I'm doing well. And I 0:00:34.520 --> 0:00:37.080 want to give a shout out at the head here 0:00:38.360 --> 0:00:42.120 because just yesterday, in real time, I went over to 0:00:42.760 --> 0:00:48.360 my in law's house for my grandmother in law's seven birthday. 0:00:49.120 --> 0:00:52.680 Happy Birthday, Mary, Happy Birthday Mary. The lead general the 0:00:52.680 --> 0:00:55.320 Stuff you Should Army, I don't know you're not on Facebook. 0:00:55.360 --> 0:00:57.960 So every year I put a happy Birthday on the 0:00:57.960 --> 0:01:00.360 Stuff you Should Know page and have every and chime 0:01:00.400 --> 0:01:02.640 in from where they are because she literally sits there 0:01:03.360 --> 0:01:05.920 and reads through like six comments from all over the 0:01:05.959 --> 0:01:10.560 world and it is like one of the best things 0:01:10.360 --> 0:01:13.400 that's real. It's really neat. So anyway, we're over there 0:01:13.440 --> 0:01:17.800 in my my father in law, Steve, who is the 0:01:17.959 --> 0:01:24.640 best dude, comes up to me and says, uh, how 0:01:24.640 --> 0:01:29.160 about a show on impeachment? Yeah? And he you know, 0:01:29.200 --> 0:01:34.440 he didn't recommend he knows better. He doesn't recommend shows topics, 0:01:34.480 --> 0:01:37.560 and he went about one on impeachment. Went wow, Steve, 0:01:37.600 --> 0:01:39.640 that's a great idea and said it is. Why haven't 0:01:39.680 --> 0:01:44.240 we done that yet? Because it's uh relevant, as we 0:01:44.280 --> 0:01:46.200 will see at the end of our show today, we'll 0:01:46.200 --> 0:01:49.160 talk about kind of what's going on in today's terms. 0:01:49.760 --> 0:01:54.840 And it's just a really weird, vaguely written, as it 0:01:54.840 --> 0:02:02.120 turns out, strange act American st um. I'm'm not exactly 0:02:02.160 --> 0:02:04.280 sure how they do it in other countries, but the 0:02:04.320 --> 0:02:07.720 way we do it is weird. I think it's just 0:02:07.800 --> 0:02:11.239 about as weird in other countries because it was adopted 0:02:11.280 --> 0:02:13.520 either from the British or from the Americans, and we 0:02:13.560 --> 0:02:16.800 adopted it from the British. Yeah, it seems to have 0:02:16.919 --> 0:02:20.920 like been understood in Great Britain, but the framers of 0:02:20.960 --> 0:02:24.799 the Constitution didn't bother to ask what anybody meant. They 0:02:24.840 --> 0:02:27.320 just kind of borrowed it. So anyway, big shout out 0:02:27.360 --> 0:02:32.040 to Steve. Alright, Steve, good idea for this idea. It's 0:02:32.080 --> 0:02:37.799 the summer of Steve. It's winter, although he's from Ohio, 0:02:37.840 --> 0:02:39.760 but now he's in Georgia, so it is like for 0:02:39.880 --> 0:02:43.440 him for I'm sure. Alright, So Chuck, let's get down 0:02:43.440 --> 0:02:45.639 to this. Let's get down to impeachment. Are we going 0:02:45.639 --> 0:02:47.240 on the way back machine? Run off the bad here? 0:02:48.080 --> 0:02:50.120 Do you want to go back to eight eight? You 0:02:50.160 --> 0:02:53.000 want to start there? Well, you know I do. Okay, 0:02:53.120 --> 0:02:55.040 let's get in the way back machine then, because you 0:02:55.080 --> 0:02:58.040 know I loved me the Spring of eighteen sixty eight. 0:02:58.120 --> 0:03:01.320 It was a good one. That's funny you say that. 0:03:01.360 --> 0:03:04.720 There's this really great short story from the fifties or sixties. 0:03:04.760 --> 0:03:06.799 I think it's it's like a horror short story called 0:03:06.800 --> 0:03:10.280 the Vintage Season. It's about like these future travelers who, 0:03:10.720 --> 0:03:13.359 like in in the future, you can travel through time 0:03:13.360 --> 0:03:15.680 and find like the perfect spring or the perfect whatever. 0:03:16.480 --> 0:03:19.480 It's it's pretty good. Check it out. Okay, all right, 0:03:19.520 --> 0:03:28.880 well now let's get in the way back machine. Alright, okay, 0:03:28.960 --> 0:03:32.280 so remember we're invisible. We can do anything. I know. 0:03:32.480 --> 0:03:37.119 I just I just booped Edmond Ross on the nose. Yeah, 0:03:37.240 --> 0:03:40.440 I just took off my shoes and everyone's like, what's 0:03:40.480 --> 0:03:43.800 that on my nose? And what's that in my nose? Right, 0:03:44.520 --> 0:03:47.040 So there's this dude, that dude you just popped on 0:03:47.160 --> 0:03:50.920 the nose Edmund Ross he's a senator actually, uh, and 0:03:50.960 --> 0:03:53.160 he's kind of new his what is this? This is 0:03:53.240 --> 0:03:57.120 May of eight, just the previous July. He was appointed 0:03:57.160 --> 0:04:00.680 to his seat, um as the senator or the junior 0:04:00.720 --> 0:04:04.160 Senator of Kansas. He had like some experience in newspapers 0:04:04.440 --> 0:04:08.200 and that was his his jam, no real political experience. 0:04:08.480 --> 0:04:12.880 And now all of the entire Senate is wondering, what 0:04:13.040 --> 0:04:16.760 is this guy going to do? Um. There, we're right 0:04:16.760 --> 0:04:19.760 in the middle of an impeachment trial, the actually the 0:04:19.800 --> 0:04:25.279 impeachment hearing of President Andrew Johnson, who is the successor 0:04:25.320 --> 0:04:30.400 of Abraham Lincoln. Right, that's right. And so by December, 0:04:30.440 --> 0:04:37.320 after the assassination of Lincoln in April of sixty five, UM, 0:04:38.480 --> 0:04:42.640 his own party was turning against him and saying, hey, 0:04:42.800 --> 0:04:45.200 we want to get this guy out of here. So 0:04:45.360 --> 0:04:48.080 let's we we haven't tried this impeachment thing on a 0:04:48.160 --> 0:04:52.240 president yet, and we're kind of eager to. Yeah. And 0:04:52.320 --> 0:04:53.920 you can make the case that he was kind of 0:04:53.960 --> 0:04:57.080 set up the his own party to turning on totally 0:04:57.120 --> 0:05:00.240 set up. But the but the Republicans hated him out 0:05:00.240 --> 0:05:02.320 of the gate. The Republicans were the ones who were 0:05:02.360 --> 0:05:06.080 pushing reconstruction and really wanted the South to pay for 0:05:06.200 --> 0:05:10.000 succeeding and for the Civil War. UM and Johnson was 0:05:10.040 --> 0:05:13.560 from Tennessee and wasn't having that. He vetoed a bill 0:05:13.680 --> 0:05:16.520 that would have given like basic basic civil rights to 0:05:16.680 --> 0:05:21.280 black Americans. He was against the Fourteenth Amendment. He decided 0:05:21.600 --> 0:05:23.760 it should be up to the states to figure out 0:05:23.839 --> 0:05:28.400 how they wanted to handle the post slavery laws, regardless 0:05:28.440 --> 0:05:30.760 of what that what effect that had on on the 0:05:30.800 --> 0:05:33.359 former slaves. So it wasn't very well liked by the 0:05:33.400 --> 0:05:36.920 abolitionist Republicans, and they wanted to get rid of them. 0:05:36.920 --> 0:05:39.840 And the way that they did was to set up 0:05:39.880 --> 0:05:45.560 this new law which was patently unconstitutional, and it was 0:05:45.640 --> 0:05:49.599 called the what was it called the you can't fire 0:05:49.640 --> 0:05:52.800 that dude law? Why didn't Yeah, that's that's basically the 0:05:52.839 --> 0:05:55.920 gist of it. Um. The Tenure Act, I believe, is 0:05:56.160 --> 0:05:59.560 the Tenure of Office Act. So you know, when when 0:06:00.040 --> 0:06:03.719 president comes in and they appoint like cabinet members or 0:06:03.920 --> 0:06:06.720 you know, a Supreme Court judge or something. They can 0:06:06.760 --> 0:06:09.360 pick the person, but the Senate has to either confirm 0:06:09.400 --> 0:06:12.920 them or say no, not this one. Right, So the 0:06:13.200 --> 0:06:16.719 Senate has confirmation powers and the President's ability to hire. 0:06:17.080 --> 0:06:20.279 The Constitution even says it in there. The Constitution doesn't 0:06:20.279 --> 0:06:23.640 say anything about firing those appointees. And so it had 0:06:23.680 --> 0:06:28.279 long been that the president could fire whoever of their 0:06:28.320 --> 0:06:32.200 appointees he wanted to write. So what the what the 0:06:32.279 --> 0:06:35.599 radical Republicans did was pass a bill that said, you, 0:06:36.480 --> 0:06:38.960 if you hire somebody, if you appoint somebody, we get 0:06:39.040 --> 0:06:41.560 to confirm them. If you try to remove somebody, we 0:06:41.760 --> 0:06:44.680 you we have to approve that as well. And again 0:06:44.880 --> 0:06:47.240 it was just it just flew in the face of 0:06:47.240 --> 0:06:52.520 the Constitution as we know it. And um, the right away, 0:06:52.760 --> 0:06:57.559 Andrew Johnson fired his Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton, and um, 0:06:57.560 --> 0:06:59.560 he was impeached right out, right out of the gate. 0:07:00.240 --> 0:07:04.760 That reminds me. That reminds me of when earlier this 0:07:04.839 --> 0:07:08.240 year when Jared Kushner was taking his first big tour 0:07:08.279 --> 0:07:11.400 of the White House after the election. Remember when he 0:07:11.680 --> 0:07:15.520 like met all the Obama employees and was like, oh, so, like, 0:07:15.560 --> 0:07:17.080 how many of these people are gonna be staying on? 0:07:17.800 --> 0:07:23.080 And they're like, nobody, this wasn't a corporate takeover. You 0:07:23.120 --> 0:07:27.200 realize it's not how government works. He's like, oh yeah, sure, 0:07:27.280 --> 0:07:30.560 well yeah, no, I didn't hear about that. It was 0:07:30.560 --> 0:07:33.920 pretty funny, like like he just bought a company. He's like, 0:07:34.240 --> 0:07:39.280 how many people are gonna be staying around? Oh yeah? 0:07:39.480 --> 0:07:43.360 So um so now so, now Andrew Johnson is impeached. 0:07:43.400 --> 0:07:46.840 He's he's broken a law that Congress had just passed, 0:07:47.160 --> 0:07:51.559 and they've they've impeached him. So what's going on. Well, 0:07:51.640 --> 0:07:55.280 here's the deal. At the time, they and you know, 0:07:55.320 --> 0:07:57.000 it's kind of like this now to a certain degree, 0:07:57.040 --> 0:07:59.520 but everybody knew how everyone was going to vote ahead 0:07:59.520 --> 0:08:05.080 of time, um, except for him. So basically Ross right, Yeah, 0:08:05.120 --> 0:08:10.000 basically everybody knew the outcome what the outcome was going 0:08:10.040 --> 0:08:12.160 to be, except for Ross, meaning that he was the 0:08:13.040 --> 0:08:15.560 deciding vote. Like it was that slim of a margin, 0:08:16.000 --> 0:08:17.720 and so that's why he was so nervous. He was 0:08:17.800 --> 0:08:20.680 he was just sitting there, apparently, just shredding this paper 0:08:20.760 --> 0:08:22.840 up as they were going around the room, and everyone's 0:08:22.880 --> 0:08:26.080 saying guilty or not guilty, because you need two thirds 0:08:26.120 --> 0:08:29.720 of the Senate vote or a supermajority to to enact 0:08:29.760 --> 0:08:31.920 this impeachment. So he was just sitting there and no 0:08:31.920 --> 0:08:34.320 one knew what was gonna happen. He stood up, he 0:08:34.400 --> 0:08:37.120 said he thought later on that he were facing death 0:08:37.800 --> 0:08:44.960 and he said not guilty, and everyone side and this 0:08:45.120 --> 0:08:47.920 article points out they don't know if it was a 0:08:47.960 --> 0:08:52.120 side of relief or upset, probably both, depending on which 0:08:52.160 --> 0:08:54.680 side of the aisle you're on. Yeah, the the whole 0:08:54.720 --> 0:08:57.679 things recounted really well in this book called Impeached by 0:08:57.760 --> 0:09:01.600 the historian David oh Stewart, um, which I think where 0:09:01.640 --> 0:09:05.600 this guy got this, but he, um, he does a 0:09:05.600 --> 0:09:07.440 good job like getting to the heart of the matter, 0:09:07.520 --> 0:09:11.800 which was this guy Emmon Ross was from that moment 0:09:11.840 --> 0:09:17.280 on celebrated as this hero, this constitutional hero, like he 0:09:17.360 --> 0:09:19.400 stood up and said, you know what, I'm not going 0:09:19.440 --> 0:09:22.360 to let the Constitution be railroaded because you guys don't 0:09:22.360 --> 0:09:26.440 like Andrew Johnson. And he's been kind of honored as 0:09:26.520 --> 0:09:29.640 that since then. I've read it a couple of articles 0:09:29.679 --> 0:09:32.560 that are like, mm, actually he was just looking out 0:09:32.559 --> 0:09:36.839 for himself. Johnson was his benefactor and um, he had 0:09:36.880 --> 0:09:40.440 basically appointed him, and uh, he had a lot of 0:09:40.440 --> 0:09:42.520 favoritism with him, and this new guy who would have 0:09:42.559 --> 0:09:45.520 come in, I think Benjamin Ward would not have carried 0:09:45.520 --> 0:09:49.280 on the same thing. But regardless, if you are a constitutionalist, 0:09:49.400 --> 0:09:51.520 this guy is your hero. Because he did save the 0:09:51.559 --> 0:09:57.000 constitution with that one vote. So what that what what 0:09:57.160 --> 0:10:00.440 took place was an impeachment proceeding, and that one was 0:10:00.520 --> 0:10:04.240 awfully close. That was the first impeachment proceeding of the 0:10:04.559 --> 0:10:07.640 US president, but that would not be the last. There's 0:10:07.679 --> 0:10:11.680 been three more or two more presidents, three total, yes, 0:10:11.760 --> 0:10:15.160 that have have faced down the impeachment gun. Uh. And 0:10:15.240 --> 0:10:19.560 there have been varying results. But as yet there's never 0:10:19.600 --> 0:10:23.520 been a president that was successfully convicted once they've been impeached, 0:10:24.440 --> 0:10:27.480 because impeachment is not convictions. A couple of different things. 0:10:27.520 --> 0:10:29.760 You want to take a break and then get into it, Yeah, 0:10:29.760 --> 0:10:32.439 because Uh, I don't want to confuse people right off 0:10:32.440 --> 0:10:35.320 the bat here any more than we need to. I 0:10:35.360 --> 0:10:37.080 think it's a little late for that. So we'll go 0:10:37.480 --> 0:10:41.080 gather our thoughts. Take a little podcaster potty break. Be 0:10:41.160 --> 0:10:44.520 back right after this. If you want to know, luck 0:10:45.160 --> 0:11:09.080 just to chuck all right. Should we talk about French 0:11:09.120 --> 0:11:12.720 and Latin real quick? Yes, because the roots of words 0:11:12.720 --> 0:11:16.080 are always fun to talk about. The French word impatia 0:11:18.040 --> 0:11:22.400 means to prevent, related to the English word impede, and 0:11:22.520 --> 0:11:28.120 both originally derived from the Latin tern impedical man, your 0:11:28.160 --> 0:11:30.880 friends is just so romantic, and that means to fedter. 0:11:31.080 --> 0:11:35.200 So basically what impeachment root wise means is to put 0:11:35.200 --> 0:11:39.360 a stop to movement of something. In this case, the 0:11:39.679 --> 0:11:43.240 uh not always a president, as we'll see. Um any 0:11:44.040 --> 0:11:49.320 um is it any elected official, any federal civil civil 0:11:49.440 --> 0:11:53.000 officers what they finally landed on. But yeah, like a 0:11:53.040 --> 0:11:56.720 federal official, somebody who is appointed by the president, the president, 0:11:56.960 --> 0:12:03.559 the vice president, um, judges typically, but not senators or 0:12:04.600 --> 0:12:07.200 congress people. They can just be run out of town 0:12:07.240 --> 0:12:10.240 on a on a bail of Hey, there's the yeah. 0:12:10.360 --> 0:12:13.640 They basically yeah, man, w you see that bail of 0:12:13.720 --> 0:12:16.719 hay coming and you know that it tolls for the 0:12:17.320 --> 0:12:19.480 you know the tars right behind it. That's a bad 0:12:19.600 --> 0:12:22.760 day for you. Um alright, So the origins of impeachment 0:12:22.800 --> 0:12:27.520 though pre United States. UM, so we're talking British legal 0:12:27.559 --> 0:12:33.960 history here. There's a dude named T. F. T. Plunkett Plucknet. Interesting, 0:12:34.559 --> 0:12:40.360 m hmm Plucknett. Uh he's in his Storian I guess so, uh, 0:12:40.400 --> 0:12:42.480 I could have sworn it was Plunkett. So T. F. T. 0:12:42.640 --> 0:12:47.520 Plucknett says that um fourteenth century Parliament was the first 0:12:47.559 --> 0:12:52.000 time impeachment came about. And during that time there were 0:12:52.000 --> 0:12:56.480 a couple of different cases over like an eleven year 0:12:56.520 --> 0:12:58.800 period that had a pretty big shift from one to 0:12:58.800 --> 0:13:02.000 the next that we kind of frame how impeachment works. Right. 0:13:02.040 --> 0:13:05.600 So at the time, back then in the fourteenth century, 0:13:05.679 --> 0:13:10.640 right the the king could appoint. They were all manner 0:13:10.679 --> 0:13:13.480 of like positions that the king could appoint, and once 0:13:13.520 --> 0:13:15.800 you were appointed by the king, that was it. You 0:13:15.920 --> 0:13:19.280 only answered to the king. You could do anything you wanted, 0:13:19.320 --> 0:13:21.960 and as long as you had the king's favor, there 0:13:22.040 --> 0:13:25.720 was nothing anyone could do. So UM at one point, 0:13:25.720 --> 0:13:27.760 and I'm not sure how they took it upon themselves, 0:13:27.760 --> 0:13:30.640 but this article says that it grew out of a 0:13:30.679 --> 0:13:35.679 trial of Roger Mortimer, who was convicted in um executed 0:13:35.760 --> 0:13:40.640 for arranging the murder of King Edward the second, and 0:13:40.679 --> 0:13:44.720 then a Chief Justice Willoughby, who was accused of corruption 0:13:45.040 --> 0:13:50.000 and tried UM. These two guys were like high appointed 0:13:50.360 --> 0:13:54.000 officials and they were removed from office, and the way 0:13:54.000 --> 0:13:57.240 that they were removed was basically the parliament got involved. 0:13:57.640 --> 0:14:00.920 So this idea of impeaching people grew out of the 0:14:01.080 --> 0:14:04.240 notion that wait a minute, Parliament and specifically the House 0:14:04.240 --> 0:14:08.480 of Commons, which is, if you take Parliament and Congress 0:14:08.480 --> 0:14:12.520 in the United States, the House of Lords is like 0:14:12.559 --> 0:14:14.680 the Senate, and the House of Commons is like the 0:14:14.720 --> 0:14:18.640 House of Representatives, right. Um, the House of Commons were 0:14:18.640 --> 0:14:21.720 the ones who would take it upon themselves to say 0:14:21.760 --> 0:14:23.600 this person is bad and we're going to get rid 0:14:23.640 --> 0:14:25.440 of them. We're going to act as their jury and 0:14:25.520 --> 0:14:29.600 try them and remove them from their appointed position. And king, 0:14:29.920 --> 0:14:31.920 there's nothing you can do about it, because we're the 0:14:31.920 --> 0:14:35.160 ones who hold the purse strings, really, so you better 0:14:35.200 --> 0:14:38.600 go along with this. And this idea of impeaching was huge. 0:14:38.640 --> 0:14:43.000 It was revolutionary in Great Britain, and it was equally 0:14:43.040 --> 0:14:46.240 revolutionary in in the founding of the United States too, 0:14:46.720 --> 0:14:49.680 because if you'll remember, the United States was founded at 0:14:49.680 --> 0:14:54.040 a time where Americans were very very wary of kings 0:14:54.920 --> 0:14:58.920 pushing them around. And in the Constitution as this role, 0:14:59.040 --> 0:15:00.720 this office of the Press that did see which is 0:15:00.760 --> 0:15:05.280 a very strong executive ruler a king almost um. And 0:15:05.960 --> 0:15:10.240 there's a legal scholar, Cass Sunstein, who wrote this great 0:15:10.360 --> 0:15:13.280 article about all this about impeachment, and he says a 0:15:13.320 --> 0:15:16.520 lot of historians agree that the Constitution probably wouldn't have 0:15:16.520 --> 0:15:20.440 been ratified if these few words about impeachment hadn't been 0:15:20.480 --> 0:15:25.120 added into the Constitution to give Americans the power to 0:15:25.280 --> 0:15:29.920 remove a corrupt president from office. Yeah, I mean they 0:15:29.960 --> 0:15:32.320 it was almost I mean, it ended up being very important, 0:15:32.360 --> 0:15:34.080 but it was almost an afterthought and how they went 0:15:34.120 --> 0:15:37.040 about it because up front they weren't saying, hey, we 0:15:37.080 --> 0:15:39.320 need to really like make sure we include this impeachment 0:15:39.360 --> 0:15:42.239 thing in here. They're worried about framing the US Constitution. 0:15:42.920 --> 0:15:47.120 And then at the end Ben Franklin very famously said, hey, 0:15:47.360 --> 0:15:50.000 you know, without impeachment, you know what, you know what, 0:15:50.040 --> 0:15:53.600 the only other thing we can do is is, uh, 0:15:53.680 --> 0:15:55.680 if we get a bad president is shoot him in 0:15:55.680 --> 0:15:57.960 the head. And they went, oh, well that won't do 0:15:58.080 --> 0:16:01.480 bully bully to that, So maybe we should we should 0:16:01.480 --> 0:16:04.520 write something down. I know, we're all tired. We've been 0:16:04.560 --> 0:16:11.520 working on this document for minutes. They had fatigue, and 0:16:11.560 --> 0:16:16.240 they so they ended up saying over what hundred and 0:16:16.320 --> 0:16:18.680 eighty words? I think it was actually less than I 0:16:18.680 --> 0:16:20.760 don't know, really I came up with that. Yeah, alright, 0:16:20.760 --> 0:16:24.600 well seven sentences. Now it's even less than that, really, Yeah, 0:16:24.600 --> 0:16:30.760 good lord, I kind of four run on sentences two 0:16:30.800 --> 0:16:33.840 of which included Colon's but that I mean, it's a sentence, 0:16:33.880 --> 0:16:37.160 four sentences in a hundred and three words, says microsoft word. 0:16:38.200 --> 0:16:41.040 Really Yeah, well they didn't have microsoft word back then, 0:16:41.120 --> 0:16:44.360 so alright, So regardless of how long it was, it 0:16:44.440 --> 0:16:48.880 was short, and it was here's the thing it was. 0:16:48.960 --> 0:16:52.360 It was written in a very vague language, which ended 0:16:52.400 --> 0:16:57.480 up being very troublesome because they weren't quite sure. I 0:16:57.480 --> 0:16:59.640 think they didn't want to hem themselves in too much, 0:17:00.360 --> 0:17:05.560 is my feeling on exactly what it would take to 0:17:05.560 --> 0:17:13.040 to start this process. Like, uh so, initially they called it, uh, 0:17:13.240 --> 0:17:16.440 it was it. George Mason called it um mal mal 0:17:16.520 --> 0:17:20.960 administration in other words, just being a bad president. Yeah, 0:17:20.960 --> 0:17:22.919 and they took that out. There was a couple of 0:17:22.920 --> 0:17:24.880 reasons why they said, no, this is a little it's 0:17:24.880 --> 0:17:29.040 a little vague. But later constitutional scholars have interpreted the 0:17:29.040 --> 0:17:33.960 fact that it was suggested and removed that the framers 0:17:34.000 --> 0:17:37.640 of the Constitution didn't consider not being a very good 0:17:37.680 --> 0:17:40.920 president as a reason to be removed from office. James 0:17:40.920 --> 0:17:43.400 Imagine at the very least, said, this is just really 0:17:43.480 --> 0:17:46.359 unclear as to what this couldn't even mean. Sure, so 0:17:46.480 --> 0:17:50.440 maladministration comes out they hit upon and I'm not sure 0:17:50.440 --> 0:17:52.000 if they hit upon it right out of the gate 0:17:52.160 --> 0:17:55.040 or if it came later, but they hit upon bribery 0:17:55.160 --> 0:17:58.600 and treason, which there's no issues with that. Everyone knows 0:17:58.600 --> 0:18:01.240 what bribery is, everyone knows what treason is. It's pretty clear. 0:18:02.359 --> 0:18:05.040 But they they're still like her saying no, this isn't 0:18:05.200 --> 0:18:07.800 it's still not quite there. James Mason spoke up again. 0:18:07.920 --> 0:18:12.280 He said, you can really screw with the democracy of 0:18:12.320 --> 0:18:17.639 America even without taking bribes, even without committing a statutory 0:18:17.720 --> 0:18:20.679 treason his act. So maybe we need to add something. 0:18:20.760 --> 0:18:23.600 So that's when he came up with mal administration and said, no, no, 0:18:23.640 --> 0:18:26.640 it's stupid. But then they came up with something else. Yeah, 0:18:26.720 --> 0:18:28.800 he finally said, because again they didn't want to be 0:18:28.840 --> 0:18:30.720 hinderen too much, but they also didn't want to be 0:18:31.160 --> 0:18:34.920 so specific with just bribery and treason that that was 0:18:34.960 --> 0:18:38.760 the only thing that you could use uh impeachment for. 0:18:38.960 --> 0:18:42.960 So he finally said, alright, good god, it's late. What 0:18:43.040 --> 0:18:48.320 about high crimes and misdemeanors and everyone, yeah, that's great. Well, 0:18:48.440 --> 0:18:50.360 no one even knows what it means. It will be perfect. 0:18:51.240 --> 0:18:53.719 What's funny is no one. No one now knows what 0:18:53.760 --> 0:18:56.040 it means, but apparently it was quite clear what it 0:18:56.080 --> 0:19:01.639 meant at the time. Yeah, it's supposedly high crime. Is. 0:19:01.760 --> 0:19:04.280 It doesn't mean like, oh my god, that's that's such 0:19:04.280 --> 0:19:10.280 a huge crime crime right, Yeah, they did grow hemp 0:19:10.320 --> 0:19:14.000 by the way. Um, but the high crime or a 0:19:14.080 --> 0:19:18.000 high misdemeanor is it's a type of crime that can 0:19:18.040 --> 0:19:21.359 only be committed by a high person a k a. 0:19:21.560 --> 0:19:26.040 An elected or federal official. That's it's still just a 0:19:26.040 --> 0:19:29.000 crime or a misdemeanor. Like I think it's still vague, 0:19:29.480 --> 0:19:33.560 so okay, So later later scholars have interpret high crimes 0:19:33.560 --> 0:19:36.159 and misdemeanors. I mean, it's a it's a crime or 0:19:36.200 --> 0:19:38.920 a misdemeanor that is carried out and can only be 0:19:38.960 --> 0:19:41.760 carried out by somebody in an elected position. So it's 0:19:41.760 --> 0:19:45.240 a betrayal of the public trust that an elected or 0:19:45.320 --> 0:19:49.440 federal official is given. Okay, and that the crimes part 0:19:49.520 --> 0:19:53.960 that throws people off. A high crime can be Um, 0:19:55.040 --> 0:19:57.959 it doesn't have to be an actual crime, Okay, So 0:19:58.040 --> 0:20:00.719 you can be impeached for a high crime that, if 0:20:00.800 --> 0:20:03.760 you go and read the US Code, is not actually 0:20:03.800 --> 0:20:06.800 a federal crime. You're not breaking the law, but you 0:20:06.840 --> 0:20:08.800 could still be impeached for it even though it's not 0:20:08.920 --> 0:20:13.160 an actual crime. And then conversely, an actual crime isn't 0:20:13.240 --> 0:20:16.919 necessarily an impeachable offense. That what the framers were trying 0:20:16.920 --> 0:20:19.879 to get at here was that the the president or 0:20:19.880 --> 0:20:23.280 the vice president, whoever was being impeached, had betrayed the 0:20:23.320 --> 0:20:27.600 public trust, had used their elected position, their high position, 0:20:28.040 --> 0:20:31.280 in a way that was that rendered them unfit to 0:20:31.359 --> 0:20:33.720 serve any longer. They could not be trusted any longer. 0:20:33.760 --> 0:20:38.600 They had proven themselves a alleged a terrible person, and 0:20:38.760 --> 0:20:43.199 had had discharged their duties as president in a in 0:20:43.240 --> 0:20:48.359 a mallow malodorous way, said the guy who shoes her 0:20:48.400 --> 0:20:53.400 off in Congress. That cleared the room man pretty quick. 0:20:54.760 --> 0:20:58.680 It's like Elizabeth Warren taking the taking to the podium. 0:21:00.119 --> 0:21:02.639 When she takes her shoes off, people clear out of there. 0:21:02.680 --> 0:21:05.879 She's had like onions for lunch, that lady. You'll just 0:21:05.960 --> 0:21:09.560 the whole onion raw? Have you ever seen it? It's amazing. 0:21:10.240 --> 0:21:15.480 Where did I see that recently? A whole onion raw? 0:21:15.680 --> 0:21:18.240 It's like a movie or something. Oh, I know what 0:21:18.320 --> 0:21:21.800 it was. The movie that was the kid was hungover 0:21:22.840 --> 0:21:24.880 and the parent comes in the next morning and they're 0:21:24.920 --> 0:21:27.879 like here, like, eat this onion, trust me, And the 0:21:27.920 --> 0:21:30.479 kid starts to eat the onion and they're like, just kidding. 0:21:32.840 --> 0:21:35.280 I can't remember what movie it was. Back to the 0:21:35.320 --> 0:21:39.439 Future too, Yeah, that was it, when Marty Marty's Hangover. 0:21:40.280 --> 0:21:42.360 That was the full name Back the Future to Marty's 0:21:42.359 --> 0:21:48.560 Hangover colon the onion. Um. So here's the deal though 0:21:48.640 --> 0:21:54.000 with it's one of two things though, when it comes 0:21:54.000 --> 0:21:57.520 to impeachment. It's either literally a crime, but it doesn't 0:21:57.560 --> 0:22:00.440 have to be. And if it's not a crime literally, 0:22:00.960 --> 0:22:04.960 then it's probably something political going on in that it is. 0:22:05.440 --> 0:22:09.440 They feel that it is subverting the office of the president. Right, 0:22:09.880 --> 0:22:13.600 that's the general interpretation. But again I mean like they 0:22:13.600 --> 0:22:17.040 didn't say high crimes and demeanor or high crimes and 0:22:17.080 --> 0:22:21.440 misdemeanors asterisks, right and then define that. So it's open 0:22:21.480 --> 0:22:25.280 to interpretation and it still is today, which is why 0:22:25.400 --> 0:22:27.840 unless you are a president or a vice president have 0:22:28.000 --> 0:22:33.160 been actually caught, um, accepting bribes or committing treason, there's 0:22:33.200 --> 0:22:35.880 a lot of wiggle room for you to get out 0:22:35.920 --> 0:22:38.760 of this. Yeah, an impeachment doesn't send you to jail, 0:22:38.840 --> 0:22:41.679 like you can then be tried for treason and that 0:22:41.680 --> 0:22:45.040 would continue to jail. Yeah, it's specifically says in the 0:22:45.080 --> 0:22:48.600 Constitution that this is strictly to remove the person from office, 0:22:49.040 --> 0:22:52.280 possibly to prevent them from ever holding federal office again. 0:22:53.200 --> 0:22:55.320 But that do you have to leave it to the 0:22:55.359 --> 0:22:59.560 regular courts to um to try and punish them. If 0:22:59.560 --> 0:23:04.480 it's an rual crime separately, that's different. But it's weird 0:23:04.520 --> 0:23:07.760 because the impeachment processes will see is very much like 0:23:07.960 --> 0:23:13.200 a uh trial, a kangaroo court trial. Basically, well, let's 0:23:13.240 --> 0:23:16.560 go and talk about it, okay, So if you're impeached, 0:23:17.520 --> 0:23:20.359 if you're a president and you do something that enough 0:23:20.480 --> 0:23:24.280 people in the House of Representatives find unsavory, you may 0:23:24.320 --> 0:23:27.760 find yourself facing impeachment. Usually that means the people in 0:23:27.800 --> 0:23:32.240 the House of Representatives are representatives are in a different 0:23:32.280 --> 0:23:35.879 political party than your own. Usually, yes, you would have 0:23:35.960 --> 0:23:38.480 to be pretty bad for your own party to be 0:23:38.520 --> 0:23:41.159 the ones who drew up the articles of impeachment to start, right, 0:23:42.040 --> 0:23:46.000 So with the articles of impeachment, it can be introduced. 0:23:46.000 --> 0:23:49.199 Typically these days, from what I understand, there's a judiciary 0:23:49.400 --> 0:23:53.080 Judiciary committee in the House, and they will be responsible 0:23:53.119 --> 0:23:57.159 for drumming up the articles of impeachment and then introducing 0:23:57.200 --> 0:24:00.600 them to the House as a whole. But in individual 0:24:01.040 --> 0:24:05.240 representative can come up with articles of impeachment himself for 0:24:05.320 --> 0:24:07.760 herself and introduce it on the House flora to be 0:24:07.880 --> 0:24:11.840 voted one way or another, which just happened actually at 0:24:11.840 --> 0:24:15.920 the beginning of December. Um as a loan representative, Al 0:24:16.040 --> 0:24:19.399 King I think from Texas introduced articles of impeachment and 0:24:19.400 --> 0:24:22.200 it got voted down. So you can do it yourself. 0:24:22.280 --> 0:24:26.400 Is just a just a loan dude or DoD s um. 0:24:26.440 --> 0:24:30.240 But normally it's the Judiciary Committee, I think, because the 0:24:30.280 --> 0:24:32.520 parties tend to try to keep a strangle hold on 0:24:32.600 --> 0:24:35.200 stuff like that. And like even with this case, the 0:24:35.240 --> 0:24:39.200 Democrats were like easy, easy, ol, like just settle down 0:24:39.240 --> 0:24:41.240 where we're going to get there, but Al was like 0:24:41.240 --> 0:24:44.400 I hate him so much too early, Al stand down, 0:24:45.520 --> 0:24:49.240 so as Al stalks off. But the process continues apparently 0:24:49.600 --> 0:24:52.560 under more normal circumstances. But he was a great example 0:24:52.640 --> 0:24:56.480 that any any representative can introduce articles of impeachment, and 0:24:56.520 --> 0:25:00.840