problem here? well, two things. first, this is the first time we ve had an impeachment based on misconduct in foreign policy. foreign policy is a very e sewer the esoteric part of our government. they think about security. will we be attacked? this was not an issue about russia or ukraine attacking the united states. there s a second issue here. you have two theories of impeachment. one is the broad theory which is an understanding of a threat to our constitutional system which does not necessarily involve a violation of the law. and a very narrow theory which is that presidents should not be removed except for criminal violations bribery and freeztre being two. the argument this time is an abuse of power. it s a broad theory of impeachment.
involving andrew johnson where he was accused of violating the tenure of office act, which was unconstitutional and struck down by the supreme court. certainly stronger than the ones involving bill clinton which involved, you know, a sexual affair and lying about a sexual affair but not misusing the powers of the presidency, which is what the whole impeachment power was about, not violating his oath of office. although, technically, sure, he committed perjury. but he wasn t endangering the nation. and if you look at what nixon did, it was really kind of tiny stuff compared to this. he didn t endanger the security of the country by basically shaking down a vulnerable ally in order to help an adversary that s involved not only in
it reminds me a little bit of the johnson impeachment under johnson 1867 who was impeached for violation of the tenure of office act. this is what you re saying. you re making the capone tax evasion. you know, you re not getting em for the big crime. certainly, don t want to make it about something technical. the problem is or the difference is here are the ukraine stuff is this is what glenn s getting at is not actually technical. this is the heart of what impeachment is about. the president tried to cheat in the 2020 election with the help of a foreign government. and so i think the problem for the democrats is that s actually pretty clear. i don t think there s actually much disagreement on the facts. but then there s also all these other allegations. about russia and lying and so on. so what do you do? this is something prosecutors deal with all the time. and i mean, i think here, the fact is they ve got a very strong, airtight case, they can make that case. they can mov
opened the inquiry into president trump and if you count from the date the starr report was delivered to congress, it was 101 days. and of course, trump and republicans argue that democrats have been pursuing impeachment since the day trump was inaugurated. in that sense, the inauguration has been going on 1048 days. as for johnson, it was longer only if you count previous attempts to impeach him on other charges. the house voted to impeach him for violating the tenure of office act, just three days after the specific article, nine days after it. as they did in the intelligence committee, the judiciary republicans sought to delay yesterday s impeachment hearing with a series of procedural maneuvers that were quickly shut down. a parliamentary inquiry. the gentleman, it is not an order for apartmenty inquiry. i have a motion. the gentleman is recognized for the purpose of opening statement and not a parliamentary inquiry.
three previous cases we ve witnessed as a country. andrew johnson, richard nixon, bi bill clinton, all of which came to different stages of completion. it s really striking, i m curious to see what my colleagues say, when you talk about this report, you see the thickness, the fact that this was assembled this quickly with this much evidence is striking, especially given the defiance. part of the answer is just simply how much this administration and its agents like rudy giuliani spoke in public and were sloppy and released things that helped build the case. as to the comparison you drew, i will say this, the johnson impeachment was famously thin because while there were many things to dislike about him including his embrace of the losing south, the tenure of office act case was thin. the nixon case was different because it operated in parallel with an independent criminal investigation like the kind that andrew knows so much about. and the clinton case also