President Clinton impeachment
From the various topics provided, I choose the impeachment of President Clinton as a key historical event that played a significant role in shaping the American political culture since 1998. I find this historical event most interesting since it portrays how American leaders who abuse the power of office are impeached and replaced with those who are willing to serve the nation diligently. In addition to this, I identified how impeachment is a punishable act mainly to those political leaders who abuse the power of office using it for political advantage. More so, this historical event is interesting since it shows how an impeachment is a political act as well as above all persons in authority. Also, it reveals steps used to impeach a successfully elected president. Therefore, the essay will chronologically analyze the account of President Clinton, who was the forty-second president of America and explain the most interesting thing about the topic. More so, the essay will identify how this historical event has shaped American politics.
Presidents Clinton impeachment commenced on 8th October 1998 after the US House of Representatives voted to instigate the impeachment proceedings for misdemeanours and high crimes. According to the historical recordings, President Clinton was the second president to be impeached after President Andrew, who was arraigned in the year 1868 for abuse of power. However, the House of Representatives charged Clinton for two specific charges which were obstruction of justice as well as lying under oath. The charges against Clinton originated from the sexual affair he was involved in with Monica Lewinsky in 1995, a twenty-one-year-old lady, an intern who worked at the White House. In 1997, she gave a testimony of the sexual affair with the president, which was recorded and used against him during his impeachment. Secondly, Clinton was faced with another sexual aggravation lawsuit that was filed against him by Paula Jones in 1998. Due to the numerous threats, Lewinsky received from the president, the FBI agents and the USA attorney offered parents and her maximum protection against the defendant throughout the entire prosecution period. After numerous periods of denial with the case against him, he finally accepted and addressed the nation through a four-minute session that he was involved in an extramarital affair with Lewinsky. And despite his acceptance on the first lawsuit against him concerning his sexual intimacy with Lewinsky he further denied and was on the contrary opinion concerning the sexual harassment litigation with Paula Jones.
Unlike other historical events, President Clinton was the first president to testify before a grand jury investigation that was conferenced via a circuit television to the nearby federal courthouse a sitting that took four hours. On the contrary, during his senatorial era, President Clinton used his legal wisdom and humor to dance around the term reasonable doubt. Still, during his conviction, he was unable to prove to the jury his innocence beyond a reasonable doubt. As established by KK, Kenneth Starr’s report identified eleven solid bases on which President Clinton would be impeached which included interfering with the witness, obstruction of justice, sexual relationship as well as abuse of power. Later on, on 11th December, three articles were approved by the House Judiciary Committee concerning Clinton’s impeachment. On the other hand, Chief Justice William Rehnquist presided over his case and required two-thirds majority vote from senators in order to convict him. Still, his case failed since the number of those who voted him out never reached the constitutional requirements. Evidenced by the senatorial voting where his first charge on perjury was voted out that the president was not quality, while his second charge of obstruction of justice received an equal split of the votes that was 50-50. Despite the several evidenced presented to the court, his impeachment drastically failed; hence he continued ruling the country as the president and remained in office for the rest of the period until his second term was over.
Explain and argue why the event is so interesting and important
The most interesting part about this historical event is how the White House tried to convince and persuade the Democrats not to impeach the president instead made the whole scene appear like politically driven against him by his opposition members. As a sign of respect to the sitting president, the House of Democrats charged him with high crimes such as perjury, threatening the rule of law as well as obstruction of justice. Another most interesting thing about this historical event is that President Clinton was not charged for his sexual behavior or extra matrimonial behaviors, but he was accused of the act of lying against these charges meaning that the fact that he had lied to the jury despite the pile of evidence and before he accepted his actions publicly. This historical event left an indelible mark both to the American society as well as politics. In addition to this, the split decision, as witnessed in the senate, has shaped the future meaning of misdemeanors and high crimes as the standards set for impeachment in the constitution. This means that perjury is a criminal act that requires a criminal investigation that can be determined to evacuate a sitting president from the White House.
Explain the connection/continuities between the historical event and to American society in the 21st century
The impeachment of presidents never stopped with President Clinton, but the historical event had reoccurred again as witnessed in 2019 when the House of representatives wanted to impeach their current present, Donald Trump. However, in both cases, republicans and democrats basically defended their presidents who, and this is the main reason why the impeachment of these two presidents failed despite being charged with criminal offences. During the impeachment of President Clinton majority of the Americans supported his impeachment with approximately 65% of the Americans population, while in the case