Donald Trump: Impeached in 2019 and 2021
On September 24, 2019, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi publicly announced a formal impeachment inquiry into President Trump, about his alleged efforts to pressure the President of Ukraine to investigate any possible wrongdoings made by his political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden.
The impeachment inquiry came immediately after a leaked whistleblower complaint told everything about a July phone conversation between Trump and President Volodymyr Zelenski, in which Trump allegedly tied Ukrainian military aid to his personal political favors.
On December 18, 2019, President Trump became the third U.S. president in the history of America that was impeached, over abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. However, on January 11, 2021, House Democrats insisted that there should be introduced the second article of impeachment, “incitement of insurrection”.
The article had phone calls, speeches, and tweets made by President Trump that incited a very violent crowd that attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Richard Nixon: Resigned in 1974
Richard Nixon was involved in one of the greatest political scandals in the entire U.S. presidential history, but they never got the chance to impeach him. If he hadn’t quit, Nixon would have probably been the first president impeached and immediately removed from office, considering the crimes he made to cover up his involvement in the Watergate scandal.
After seven months of continuous deliberation, the House Judiciary Committee decided to approve the first five proposed articles of impeachment against Richard Nixon, charging him with obstruction of justice.
However, everything changed on August 5, 1974, as the Supreme Court decided to order Nixon to release some unedited tapes that contained conversations in the Oval Office, with different White House staffers during the Watergate investigation.
The tapes included Nixon proposing to use the CIA to obstruct the FBI investigation, but also paying hush money to some Watergate burglars. The transcript even included pieces of conversation such as:
Nixon: How much money will it take?
John W. Dean: I would say a million dollars over the next two years.
Nixon: We could get that.
As the tapes were released, Nixon was instantly tipped that all but 15 Senators will definitely vote against him in the impeachment trial, which is enough to kick him out of office. So to save his dignity, he resigned.
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