The Patriot Post® · Impeachment Requires Political Consensus

Former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy explains the implications of impeachment. In an article for National Review, McCarthy writes, “[I]impeachment is a political remedy requiring broad public consensus, not a legal one triggered once impeachable offenses are provable. Contrary to some less than informed opinion, ‘high crimes and misdemeanors’ — the legal standard for impeachment — refers not to indictable criminal offenses but to profound breaches of the public trust by high-ranking officials. Once the standard is understood, it becomes easy to see that the president and his underlings have committed numerous, readily provable impeachable offenses. Yet, even if a president commits a hundred high crimes and misdemeanors, impeachment is a non-starter unless the public is convinced that the president should be removed from power. The real question is political: Are his lawlessness and unfitness so thoroughgoing that we can no longer trust him with the awesome power of the chief executive?” The answer is obvious to us…