A column created and written by Harper E. Throughout American history, there have only been three presidents to ever have been impeached--Andrew Johnson (1868), Bill Clinton (1998), and now our current president, Donald Trump (2019). But the real question is--What is impeachment? To answer that, we must go back to America’s Founding Fathers and the very structure of our government system. In our democracy, there are three branches of power that do different things that keep our system of government functioning:
Our government was designed to make sure not one person or office had too much power, using a system known as “checks and balances”. In the case of impeachment, the Legislative Branch can “check” the Executive Branch if it becomes necessary to examine the legal actions taken by the President. As you have probably heard, the House of Representatives (Legislative Branch) has voted to impeach or charge a public official with a crime—that public official being the President. (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/impeach). Now, the Senate will hear the case and vote to determine if Trump will be kicked out of office or not. Given that the Senate, is mostly controlled by Republicans, favor may be on Trump’s side. So far, no president has been kicked out of office successfully after an impeachment trial. In the end, impeachment may not be that successful because a person can still run for re-election and stay in office. That’s how our government works IN A FLASH! Comments are closed.
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The Merrill Gazette Staff...
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