EARLY last week, President Donald Trump was cracking jokes about impeachment as he handed out pardons to two turkeys, Bread and Butter.

He’s not in such good humour now after the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, said her Democrat members would start preparing articles of impeachment against the president.

Pelosi said yesterday that the impeachment process was not about politics but patriotism. Mmmm...

She has long resisted impeachment as she believes it will strengthen Trump’s appeal to the anti-Washington brigade, but the overwhelming evidence of misconduct that has emerged during the recent congressional hearings has convinced Pelosi and other senior Democrats that Trump can now be seriously damaged with less than a year to the next election. That’s politics for you.

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CAN HE BE IMPEACHED?

MOST certainly, but being removed from office is a different matter. Only two Presidents have ever been impeached, with Andrew Johnson the first in 1868. He was hit with 11 articles of impeachment surrounding his dismissal of the Secretary for War, Edwin Stanton, who had the overwhelming support of the Republicans who controlled both Houses of Congress. Johnson survived by one vote because several Republicans refused to go along with the party line.

In the case of Bill Clinton in 1998-99, the accusation against him was that he had contravened the strict laws which the USA has in giving testimony to a Grand Jury.

Basically he was accused of perjury and obstruction of justice in regard to his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Both Houses split along party lines and the Republicans in general went after the President but Clinton’s Democrats ensured his survival in the senate proceedings where a two-thirds majority is needed for removal from office.

That case could have real relevance to the process that Trump now faces. The real damage to Clinton’s reputation was caused by the investigation which uncovered some murky facts about the President. His treatment of Lewinsky in particular proved deeply shocking to Americans. Nevertheless, Clinton survived in office because not enough Democrats in the Senate would vote him out. If this case goes to a senate trial, that outcome is likely to happen again as the Republican majority in the Senate will not oust Trump because like it or not, and not many of them don’t, the Donald still holds sway over the opinions of many, if not most, American voters.

The National:

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COULD HE DO A NIXON?

THE case of Republican President Richard Nixon might be more applicable to the matter of Trump’s future. When the Watergate scandal first started to emerge in 1972, it seemed that it was just a bunch of rogue Republicans who had broken into the Democratic Party’s offices in Washington to try to damage the presidential campaign of Nixon’s opponent, George McGovern.

As the press investigation led by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of the Washington Post went on, more and more revelations emerged not about the break-in itself but about the role of the White House in covering it up.

Nixon at first said: “There can be no whitewash at the White House” but fought long and hard, refusing to comply with requests for such as items as the secret tapes he had made of conversation in the Oval Office. They were eventually released and were devastating, showing the US public that their president was a foul-mouthed bully and liar.

Terminally damaged by the investigations into his conduct, and losing the support of Republican senators, Nixon eventually conceded defeat and he duly resigned before the House of Representatives voted to impeach him as they were surely going to do. Trump will now face the same level of inquiry into his activities, and as the Nixon case showed, what might start as a simple investigation into an allegation of wrongdoing can quickly extend to probe into every sphere of his activities, as has already happened with Trump who, like Nixon, sacked his Attorney General Jeff Sessions last year.

After he is impeached on whatever grounds are chosen, Trump knows he will have to defend himself in public. Given his inability to deal with “off script” matters, not to mention his volatility under pressure, will Trump run the risk of public humiliation?

Might he not be better to resign on health grounds as there are plenty of rumours about his mental state? Then he could go with the promise of a full presidential pardon for any crimes against the USA he may have committed in his entire life, admitted or not, just as Gerald Ford did for Richard Nixon.

WHAT IS HE SUPPOSED TO HAVE DONE WRONG?

THE basic allegation against Trump is that he put pressure on the Ukrainian government to say they would carry out an inquiry into the activities there of US citizen Hunter Biden. He just happens to be the son of Trump’s likely opponent in the 2020 election, former Vice-President Joe Biden, who Trump also wanted investigated.

The most serious element of the allegations is that Trump threatened to withhold $400 million of aid to Ukraine. That aid to a country facing Russian aggression was approved by Congress, and probably the biggest question for Trump will be if he has the legal right to effectively stop a congressional project.

IT’S ALL ABOUT POLITICS, ISN’T IT?

DESPITE Pelosi’s claims, the impeachment process is all tied in to the conduct and personality of Donald Trump, and that makes it highly political. The Democrats want him tarnished in this coming election year, Trump will fight for as long as he can, and all of it played out on television as Trump likes.