Trump Timeline ... Trumpocalypse



With special counsel Robert Mueller bringing federal charges against two former advisers to President Trump’s campaign, and a campaign foreign policy adviser pleading guilty to lying about efforts to obtain damaging information from the Russians about Hillary Clinton, what was once inconceivable has become a little less so.

Should evidence eventually emerge of possible criminal activity involving Trump himself, analysts say, Congress might have to ponder opening the impeachment process against him, as it last did against President Bill Clinton in 1998. Few clauses in the U.S. Constitution are as mysterious or as misunderstood by Americans as impeachment, and that’s unfortunate, contends Cass R. Sunstein, the Robert Walmsley University Professor atHarvard Law School.

“It’s not just for specialists. It can’t be. As much as any part of the Constitution, the impeachment clause puts the fate of the republic squarely in our hands,” writes Sunstein in a new book, “Impeachment: A Citizen’s Guide” (Harvard University Press).

In his book, Sunstein recounts the complicated debates among the nation’s founders over how best to protect the fledgling United States from succumbing to a president with king-like aspirations. Aside from elections every four years and the congressional and judicial checks on executive power, the founders believed that the people’s ability to remove a president through impeachment was the most important governmental safeguard and a hallmark of American exceptionalism.

In an interview, Sunstein clears up some misconceptions about the impeachment process and discusses why he thinks that too-infrequent calls for a president’s impeachment can prove as dangerous to the republic as too many.

SUNSTEIN: One misconception is that if the president hasn’t committed a crime, he can’t be impeached. That’s wrong. If the president goes on vacation for six months in Moscow, he’s impeachable, though that’s no crime. If he abuses the pardon power, he is impeachable, even if he has not committed a crime. Another misconception is that if the president has committed a crime, he’s impeachable. Not so! Shoplifting isn’t an impeachable offense, nor is jaywalking, nor is income tax fraud. For impeachment, we need an abuse of presidential authority.

Yet another misconception is that the House of Representatives gets to decide what’s an impeachable offense. Definitely wrong. The Constitution sharply limits the category of impeachable offenses.
 


More than half of Americans (59 percent) said they consider this the lowest point in U.S. history that they can remember — a figure spanning every generation, including those who lived through World War II and Vietnam, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

When asked to think about the nation this year, nearly six in 10 adults (59 percent) report that the current social divisiveness causes them stress. A majority of adults from both political parties say the future of the nation is a source of stress, though the number is significantly higher for Democrats (73 percent) than for Republicans (56 percent) and independents (59 percent).

"We're seeing significant stress transcending party lines," said Arthur C. Evans Jr., PhD, APA's chief executive officer. "The uncertainty and unpredictability tied to the future of our nation is affecting the health and well-being of many Americans in a way that feels unique to this period in recent history."
 
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