In today’s digital age none of us will be able escape history. Every Facebook posting, every Twitter we send and everything we share on the web has a chance to live for a very long time. Now most of us will not be important enough but a few, like our Senators, will not be able to escape history. All the recording and all the testimony will be there to be reviewed generations from now. I am sure that in a few cases their great great grandchildren will be asking “What in the hell were you thinking.”

At times like these I try to look back in history so I Googled the President Johnson Impeachment.  Now he was impeached because he violated the Tenure of Office Act that he had vetoed but Congress had overridden that veto. Now it is a good read and what happened between the Senate and Johnson has repercussions even today. Now the Tenure of Office Act was later struck down by the Supreme Court but that power struggle has led directly to some of the race problems we have today.  One very interesting thing that is discussed was the bribes that were investigated after the impeachment vote. I guess there were a few Senators that thought there was money to be made by being paid to acquit. It is really not that different than today. There were Senators that were soliciting funds during the insurrection and let’s face it; a political donation is just a bribe.

Next came the Clinton Impeachment. Now everyone will tell you that Clinton got impeached for having sex in the Oval Office. Well, he did have sex in the Oval Office but what he was impeached for was lying about having sex in the Oval Office. Lindsey Graham at the time said “You don’t have to be convicted of a crime to lose your job in a Constitutional Republic,” Graham said in a 1999 clip posted on Twitter by MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell. He said a president could get the boot if Congress decides “your conduct as a public official is clearly out of bounds”: “Impeachment is not about punishment.” I kind of intrepid that if Congress feels that the conduct is not up to the Congresses standards  they could remove a President from office. From that argument there was no justification for acquitting Trump the first time. Now Clinton’s problem started with the civil charge of sexual harassment charge by Jennifer Flowers that occurred while he was Governor of Arkansas. Clinton tried to use the power of the office of the President t as a shield and the Supreme Court said no. Now that is similar to the civil case against Trump for rape. For some reason Trump has been able to avoid that one. The Jennifer Flowers investigation eventually led to Monica Lewinsky a name that will be tied to Clinton forever. At that point Clinton did lie under oath. I do not believe that a president should be impeached because he had sex in the oval office but lying is another thing. Lying what we should judge a President with. Not just under oath but all the time. If we would have to judge Trump for lying he never would have been elected. If Clinton would have been removed from office history could have defended that decision. 

Next comes Trumps first Impeachment. It came after  a whistleblower alleged that Trump may had abused the power of the presidency. Trump was accused of withholding military aid as a means of pressuring newly elected president of Ukraine Volodymer Zelensky to pursue investigations of Joe Biden and his son Hunter and to investigate a conspiracy theory the Ukraine and not Russia  was behind the interference in the 2016 election. More than a week after Trump had put on hold previously approved aid, he made these requests in a July 25^th phone call with the Ukrainian President. The whistleblower said that it was intended to help Trump in his reelection bid. Now I will tell you if the first impeachment trial  was handled properly there would have been no need for the second impeachment. The whole exercise was a waste of time except history demanded it. If the Senate had done their job we would never had an insurrection and the brave police officers and would be insurrectionist would be alive. Their blood is on the hands of those that completely whitewashed the whole trial.

We are at the Second Impeachment. The Second Impeachment of Donald Trump occurred on January 13 2021, one week before his term expired. The House adopted one article of Impeachment against Trump of “incitement of insurrection”, alleging that Trump incited the January 6 storming of the U S Capital. These events were preceded by numerous unsuccessful attempts by Trump to overturn  the results of the 2020 election, as well as pushing baseless fraud conspiracy theories about the election. Now there is a ton of evidence and as time goes on we will actually see more. As I have stated many time in today’s digital age future generation will be able view it like they are there. Some will probably ask “What in the hell were you thinking.” January 6^th will be forever remembered and studied like Peril Harbor and 9/11. These Senators names will go down in history like few others before. 

History always remembers and over time it usually gets it right.