00:00You ever get the feeling there are important life matters afoot just kind of floating around
00:05out there that you should probably know about? But between that late night work session catching up
00:10with that friend that's been rescheduling for weeks and you know just trying to get some sleep
00:15you haven't quite found time for that deep dive? Well don't worry because A you're not alone and B
00:21that's why you're tuning in right now for this quick breakdown on the one thing everyone's
00:26talking about impeachment you've just found your one-stop shop for all the highlights on what it
00:30really means and more importantly why it matters to you like of the president impeachment
00:39i'm not quite 100 sure about the definition impeachment is a process guaranteed by the
00:47constitution to remove a sitting president from office many people think impeachment is someone's
00:53removal from office like hey can someone please get this guy out of here get out of here but
00:58according to merriam-webster the definition of impeachment is actually to charge a public
01:03official before a competent tribunal with misconduct in office much like an indictment in criminal court
01:09impeachment is that formal charge that initiates a trial that can end in one of two simple ways
01:14an acquittal or conviction so just how does impeachment or the i word as president trump
01:24likes to call it actually work bear with me here the impeachment process begins in the house of
01:30representatives where any member can propose impeachment resolutions against a public official
01:35now congress can't just impeach someone for say an offensive hairstyle
01:40a bad outfit or even repulsive politics our constitution explicitly states that a civil servant
01:48can only be impeached due to treason bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors and according to
01:53zoe lofgren democratic member of the house judiciary committee this activity has to be threatening to
01:59the functioning of our democracy then it's up to the house judiciary committee to officially decide
02:04whether to open an impeachment inquiry only then does the full house get to vote on each of the
02:09charges brought against the official at least one of the charges has to receive a majority vote
02:14before the accused is officially impeached and must stand trial in the senate though i can't promise
02:20impeachment trials are as juicy as the ones on law and order they are at the end of the day
02:24a trial
02:25the senate acts as the judge and jury except with presidential impeachment trials when the chief justice of
02:30the supreme court acts as judge and they vote whether or not to remove the official from office
02:35then it's adios sayonara bye but if only it were that simple that said can you guess how many public
02:43officials the house has actually impeached if your answer was 19 you would be odd but also a genius
02:48good job in its entire history the house has only impeached one senator one cabinet member 15 judges and
02:56only two presidents andrew johnson was the first president to be impeached in 1868 nixon came close
03:02in 1974 but knowing he'd likely be removed from office he dodged that bullet by resigning in 98
03:09democratic president bill clinton became the second president to be impeached that is not my recollection
03:14his charges besides cheating on his wife of course were lying under oath and obstruction of justice and
03:20they stemmed from the infamous sexual harassment lawsuit filed against him you may remember that one
03:25i did not have sexual relations with that woman fast forward to today a host of democrats and one
03:33lone republican justin amash that poor brave guy are calling for trump to be impeached they've cited
03:40multiple charges the worst being the obstruction of justice during special counsel muller's investigation
03:46of russian meddling in the 2016 election but speaker nancy pelosi isn't sure impeachment is the right move
03:53her reason lack of public support and bipartisan support in congress just like in the clinton days
04:00back then the public didn't support clinton's impeachment and some believe it actually caused
04:05the republicans to lose a few seats in congress she's just trying to avoid that another fear for
04:11dimms is that impeachment could go horribly wrong and actually energize trump's face and ensure another
04:16win in 2020 something they really really don't want well you can't impeach somebody that's doing a
04:24great job what does this all mean for you so do you think elected officials should remove a president
04:30or should we leave it up to us the people i feel like elected officials because then i feel like
04:35it
04:36would kind of be like the same thing as like voting i feel like us as voters because elected officials
04:41there's only so many of them and we as people like there's a lot of us if the people can
04:46overpower
04:46the government like that's a political coup um the entire purpose of having a representative democracy
04:51is so we can place our trust in people who know the government better than we do even though we
04:56the
04:56people do not get a say about who gets impeached except for you know maybe within the twitterverse or
05:00here on instagram and youtube the most effective way to get rid of a president is still at the ballot
05:06box after all when we vote we're guaranteed to make our voices heard i'm brookinton for more videos
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