In the 245 years of American independence, only 4 presidents have ever been impeached. Amazingly enough, though, it has happened to 2 or the last 5 people to hold the highest office in the land.
Donald Trump, of course, was impeached twice. He likely would have been convicted the second time if it wasn’t for the hyper-partisan nature of the day.
Bill Clinton was impeached back in the late 1990’s. And while Clinton had carried on an embarrassing affair with a staffer, the charges against him where nowhere near as serious as the ones that Trump faced.
Former Speaker of the House John Boehner has a new book out where he is quite honest about his actions as a member of the Republican party. And in the new tome, Boehner says that the party should have never impeached Clinton.
To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.
Boehner writes, “In my view, Republicans impeached him for one reason and one reason only — because it was strenuously recommended to us by one Tom DeLay. Tom believed that impeaching Clinton would win us all these House seats, would be a big win politically, and he convinced enough of the membership and the G.O.P. base that this was true. I was on board at the time. I won’t pretend otherwise. But I regret it now. I regret that I didn’t fight against it.”
The former Ohio Rep. also slams Trump in the new book. He writes of the 45th president, “I’ll admit I wasn’t prepared for what came after the election — Trump refusing to accept the results and stoking the flames of conspiracy that turned into violence in the seat of our democracy, the building over which I once presided.”
Todd Neikirk is a New Jersey based politics and technology writer. His work has been featured in psfk.com, foxsports.com and hillreporter.com. He enjoys sports, politics, comic books and spending time at the shore with his family.
