Thursday, December 19, 2019

“Let Them Impeach And Be Damned”: History Repeats Itself With A Vengeance As The House Impeaches Donald Trump

Below is my column in the Hill newspaper on the striking similarities between the Johnson and Trump impeachments - a comparison that should be unsettling for most voters as history repeats itself with a vengeance.

The impeachment of Trump is not just history repeating itself but repeating itself with a vengeance.

The closest of the three prior presidential impeachment cases to the House effort today is the 1868 impeachment of Andrew Johnson.

The Trump impeachment is even weaker than the Johnson impeachment, which had an accepted criminal act as its foundation.

The Trump impeachment also marks the fastest impeachment of all time, depending on how you count the days in the Johnson case.

Many Democrats seem to be taking away the wrong lesson on impeachment from Johnson himself, who declared, "Whenever you hear a man prating about the Constitution, spot him as a traitor." This is how history not only repeats itself, but repeats itself with a vengeance.

Jonathan Turley is the chair of public interest law at George Washington University and served as the last lead counsel in a Senate impeachment trial.

https://jonathanturley.org/2019/12/19/let-them-impeach-and-be-damned-history-repeats-itself-with-a-vengeance-as-the-house-impeaches-donald-trump/

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