Kevin McCarthy announced Tuesday that a political trial investigation has been opened against Joe Biden. According to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Republicans discovered serious and credible accusations that support their actions, specifically, he spoke of a "culture of corruption." Speaking of culture, a senator anticipated this a few years ago; the Democratic Party opened the door to a culture of impeachment in the United States.
Back in December 2020, the Democrats in the House of Representatives, led by Nancy Pelosi, presented articles of impeachment against Donald Trump. They accused him of having reneged on his oath of office, so they wanted him out of the White House. A month later, Ted Cruz launched his podcast, "Verdict", where he analyzed the case against Trump in the first episodes.
#BREAKING | House Speaker Kevin McCarthy announces a formal impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden. pic.twitter.com/5ZSeXfW3cF
— VOZ (@Voz_US) September 12, 2023
As explained by the senator in episode one, named "Trump on Trial," the two charges the then-president faced did not amount to a violation of any criminal or civil offense, so they were politically motivated to try to weaken the Republican party ahead of the 2022 presidential elections.
However, Cruz did not seem very concerned about whether Congress could convict the president, but about what an impeachment trial would mean for the future of American politics. Up to that point, only two presidents had gone through the process, Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1999. While the former was saved from removal by one vote, the latter was acquitted by a slightly more comfortable margin.
In other words, lawmakers had taken 80 years to initiate the first impeachment trial and nearly 130 for the second. Suddenly, two of the last four presidents are going to be impeached. Therefore, the Republican senator predicted that thanks to the partisan attempt of the Democrats to remove Trump, with very weak motives, the process would become common currency for the next few years.
"It seems like this is speeding up, it seems like we're getting into a situation where the Congress is just going to throw out presidents that they don't like. Are we doing this too much? Is this a bad sign for the country?", asked Michael Knowles, then co-host of the podcast.
"I think it's very dangerous. I think if this is the House Democrats' standard this time, if that's what holds going forward any time you have a president of one party in a house of a different party they're gonna impeach him we're just gonna see this as a standard tool of political warfare," the Texas Republican responded.
For Cruz, the fact that Democrats impeached Trump, opened the door to impeachment culture in the United States, meaning that there will always be an attempt to find a way to prosecute the incumbent president, in cases where the opposition party has a majority in the House of Representatives.
