Debunking Some Impeachment Lies

With a swing of Speaker Pesoli’s gavel, Donald Trump became the 3rd President to be impeached by the United States’ House of Representatives, a distinction he shares with Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton.

A little house-keeping, since there seems to be some confusion over this matter: impeachment is not removal. It’s like being indicted by a grand jury; it is a formal recognition that there needs to be a trial. An impeached President is still the President, still retains all of the powers of the office, and is in no way eligible for a third term no matter what Mike Huckabee thinks.

A little more house-keeping: a bunch of right-wing blogs and (predictably) the White House are pushing the narrative that, because the House has not formally transmitted the articles of impeachment to the Senate yet, the President has not been impeached. While US law is full of technicalities and loopholes, the impeachment process is not because the Constitution is extremely brief when it comes to defining what impeachment actually is.

Article I, Section 2, Paragraph 5:

The House of Representatives shall chuse [sic] their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment.

That’s it. That’s all we have on the House’s role in the impeachment process. It’s pretty clear, however, that while the Senate has “the sole Power to try all Impeachments” (Article I.3.6), the power of Impeachment itself lies with the House.

If Speaker Pelosi says Trump has been impeached he has been impeached.

What can I do?

There are a couple things you can do. First, if you see someone in your social media circles who’s confused about impeachment or spreading misinformation, feel free to send them to this article. Second, you can tell your Representatives and Senators that you won’t stand for them peddling misinformation in their media appearances, because you know that’s coming. Third, you can demand that the Senate hold a fair and open trial in which witnesses can testify and evidence may be considered.

You’re on your own for the first one, but Resistbot can help you with the other two. You can write to your Representatives, Senators, and a bunch of other government officials to boot by sending the word resist to Resistbot on on Facebook Messenger, Telegram, or as a Twitter direct message. If none of those work for you, Resistbot also supports old fashioned SMS: text RESIST to 50409 to get started. It takes 2 minutes to demand that justice be served. ⚖️🤖👊