The first time I realized that the Republicans were going to impeach Bill Clinton was about 46 minutes into his first address to a Joint Session of Congress, also referred to as the 1993 State of the Union, on February 17, 1993. When the Republicans in the audience laughed at him for saying that the Congressional Budget Office had reported that his proposed budget would provide a “real spending cut, a real revenue increase, a real deficit reduction” according to the CBO numbers, I was shocked. It was the first time I’d ever heard the President laughed at in Congress and it shook me.
Video: https://youtu.be/840MahAgJh0
Text: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Bill_Clinton%27s_First_State_of_the_Union_Address
Consequently, I was not surprised when Clinton was impeached in his second term. (And what an overweening fool Bill Clinton was to give them that opportunity.)
These examples are part of the reason why I believe that a significant proportion of today’s Republican Party does not, by and large, consider Democratic legislators to be legitimately elected or that Democratic voters actually have a right to vote. Only Republicans are full citizens. At least, that’s how they tend to act and what those actions indicate they believe. Only Republicans should vote. Only Republicans should hold office. Only Republicans are “real Americans” as opposed to those “cultured, cosmopolitan, goat’s milk latte-drinking, avocado toast-eating insider’s elite” that Phi Beta Kappa key owning, Oxford University educated, Order of the Coif inductee, $12 million or so millionaire Senator John Neely Kennedy recently decried.
Given that background, it appears to me that if Hillary Clinton had won the Electoral College as she won the popular vote and was sworn in as President, she would have faced impeachment just as her husband did. But don’t take my word for it. Here are some of the statements prominent Republicans made before the 2016 election that make it explicit
from https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/11/republicans-are-already-talking-about-impeaching-clinton
“’There’s been nothing like this where you can have potential criminal charges,’ New York Rep. Peter King said in a radio interview Tuesday. ‘You really could have a constitutional crisis here,’ he added, echoing a similar charge by Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert and Wisconsin Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner.
“Other Republicans are already using the ‘I’ word. ‘Assuming she wins, and the investigation goes forward, and it looks like an indictment is pending, at that point in time, under the Constitution, the House of Representatives would engage in an impeachment trial,’ Texas Rep. Michael McCaul said on Fox News. ‘They would go to the Senate and impeachment proceedings and removal would take place.’ Wisconsin senator Ron Johnson declared that Clinton could be impeached for ‘high crimes or misdemeanor.’
….“’Even before we get to Day One, we’ve got two years’ worth of material already lined up,’ Utah Rep Jason Chaffetz, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said last week. ‘She has four years of history at the State Department, and it ain’t good.’”
President Obama also saw the writing on the wall.
from https://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/obama-republicans-impeachment-burr-23065011/02/2016 05:07 PM EDT
“President Barack Obama accused Republicans of fostering a ‘new normal’ within their party in a blistering speech on Wednesday, blaming North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr and his colleagues for gridlock in Washington and for even suggesting that they might try to impeach Hillary Clinton.
“‘You’ve got some Republicans in Congress who are already suggesting they will impeach Hillary,’ Obama added, his voice rising. ‘She hasn’t even been elected yet. And it doesn’t matter what evidence they just — they’ll find something. That’s what they’re saying already.’”
Why Democrats don’t play back these quotes to the Republicans who say, over and over again, that the Democrats have been trying to impeach Trmp since the 2016 election is beyond me. Yes, the Democrats have wanted to impeach Trmp since the moment it became clear he would be President but the Republicans were already planning to impeach Hillary Clinton, and said so, before the vote was counted. Gander meet goose.
Impeachment was inevitable no matter who won in 2016 and I fear impeachment will always be inevitable as long as we have a Party of True Belief (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2005/10/21/158586/-), which the Republican Party has become, as one of the only two viable national parties these United (?) States allow ourselves.
I disagree. I do not think House Democrats would be impeaching a Republican President who did not abuse presidential powers over military aid to go after domestic political opponents. Nor would they be impeaching a Republican President whose campaign was not directly assisted by Russian intelligence. I think this is a key distinction. I absolutely agree that President Clinton would have been impeached by a Republican Congress no matter what she did. As odious as Donald Trump is, had he followed the constitution he took an oath to enforce and not abused his power he would not be getting impeached.