Impeaching a president by the House of Representatives is kind of like getting an indictment from a grand jury. The House declares that there is enough evidence of wrongdoing to warrant sending information to the Senate for a trial.
While there have been two presidents impeached by the House (Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton), none has ever been convicted by the Senate. The Senate requirement is for a two-thirds (67 senators) vote for conviction.
The one president who possibly could have been impeached and found guilty in the Senate, Richard Nixon, chose to resign rather than face the possibility of being the first president to be impeached and convicted in the Senate.
All the talk by the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives should just go on hold until after the Mueller investigation is concluded.
In order to convict President Trump, 18 Republican senators out of 51 (35 percent) would have to vote to convict, along with all 49 Democratic senators. I believe the only way that would happen is if the Mueller investigation found such egregious wrongdoing (such as treason) that the whole country would demand Trump’s impeachment and conviction.
This is the president who said he could shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue and still be elected.
The House could vote to impeach him now. While he would become the third president to be impeached, he, like the previous two, would not be convicted.
While being an impeached president might embarrass Trump, it would not remove him from office. He might even use his impeachment and lack of conviction in the Senate to help him in the 2020 election and gain a second term.
Garth Pellett, Sandy
