Ralph engages in a spirited debate with Constitutional scholar Alan Hirsch, author of “Impeaching the President: Past, Present, and Future,” about how the history of impeachment informs the case for possibly impeaching Donald Trump.
Alan Hirsch is an instructor in the Humanities and Chair of the Justice and Law program at Williams College. Professor Hirsch is the author of numerous works of legal scholarship and many books, including “For the People: What the Constitution Really Says About Your Rights,”(co-authored with Akhil Amar), “A Citizen’s Guide to Impeachment,” as well as “Impeaching the President: Past Present and Future.”
“The Constitution is pretty clear on this. You can only impeach a president for treason, bribery and other high crimes and misdemeanors. Now, I understand the latter phrase is bit opaque, but they explicitly rejected the idea that it was for maladministration, basically the President doing a bad job… we don’t want to dilute the standard, so it seems like it’s just a political act, and the next president, the other party does the same thing. It really should be reserved for the president – and Trump may very well be the poster child for impeachment – but it should be reserved for the president who violates the Constitution… They don’t specifically have to commit a criminal offense. But they have to commit a Constitutional offense.”
Professor Alan Hirsch, author of “Impeaching the President: Past, Present & Future
“There is a very strong likelihood that Mueller will make a compelling case for obstruction. I think we already have – we need a little more fact-finding – but a pretty good case for election fraud. (But) it might be that the only thing that turns the Republicans in the Senate is collusion.”
Professor Alan Hirsch, author of “Impeaching the President: Past, Present & Future
Impeaching the President