>To be impeached, a President or other federal official must have committed one of the violations described by the Constitution as “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.” But history shows that if a President is to be impeached, the biggest factor may be political will — whether members of a President’s own party are willing to turn against him, and whether enough members of Congress believe that trying to remove the President is worth the risk of losing popular support.
>To impeach an official, the House of Representatives must pass articles of impeachment, which formally accuse the President of misbehavior. Once the House votes to impeach, the Senate must hold a trial to decide if the President should be removed from office.
So no, Trump (nor Clinton nor Johnson for that matter) was/were not impeached. They were all acquitted of the charges presented and even foregoing that the Senate ultimately lacked the political will to impeach them.
They were all tried for impeachment but they were not "impeached". To be impeached means they were found guilty of the charges (article(s) of impeachment) levied. It's like calling someone acquitted of murder a murderer, that's not how this works at all.
And yet the paragraphs I cited from the very article you keep linking dispute that statement.
Again, I cite:
>To be impeached, a President or other federal official must have committed one of the violations described by the Constitution as “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.” But history shows that if a President is to be impeached, the biggest factor may be political will — whether members of a President’s own party are willing to turn against him, and whether enough members of Congress believe that trying to remove the President is worth the risk of losing popular support.
>To impeach an official, the House of Representatives must pass articles of impeachment, which formally accuse the President of misbehavior. Once the House votes to impeach, the Senate must hold a trial to decide if the President should be removed from office.
Further, citing Clause 6 of Article 1 from the Constitution[1] (emphasis mine):
>The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments.
A President (or former President) is only "impeached" if he is found guilty by the Senate of the charge(s) levied against him by the House. To date that has never occured, all impeachment trials against a President to date have concluded in acquittals.
Factually, there has never been an impeached President in American history.
The use of the term "impeached" to mean a President tried for impeachment is confusing and misleading, perhaps deliberately so given the individuals concerned in all the impeachment trials.
"The most recent was the second impeachment of former President Donald Trump."
"What does impeachment mean?
Impeachment means charging a public official with misconduct. Like in the justice system, charges alone do not lead to consequences. Instead, there is a trial, during which the official is convicted or acquitted."
While there have been demands for the impeachment of most presidents, only three — Andrew Johnson in 1868, Bill Clinton in 1999 and Donald Trump in 2019— have actually been impeached. A second impeachment of Donald Trump was adopted, making him the first US President to be impeached twice.
I reiterate that "impeached" means to be convicted of charges levied in (an) article(s) of impeachment.
Article 2, Section 2, Clause 1[1] of the Constitution (also cited in your links) states (emphasis mine):
>[The President] shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.
For there to even be a question of a presidential pardon applying to impeachments that necessitated such a clause, being impeached implies being convicted. The Justice Department considers pardons without convictions as "highly unusual"[2].
I thus reiterate: There has never been an impeached President to date, and the use of the term "impeached" to mean a President merely tried for impeachment is very misleading. Again, you don't call someone merely tried for (let alone acquitted of) murder a murderer.
