The Constitution of the United States gives Congress the authority to remove the vice president of the United States from office in two separate proceedings. The first one takes place in the House of Representatives, which impeaches the vice president by approving articles of impeachment through a simple majority vote. The second proceeding, the impeachment trial, takes place in the Senate. There, conviction on any of the articles requires a two-thirds majority vote and would result in the removal from office (if currently sitting), and possible debarment from holding future office. [1]
No United States vice president has been impeached. One has gone through an impeachment inquiry, however, without being formally impeached.
A loophole was filled in a change of rules during the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton in 1999. Prior to this change, vice presidents were authorized to preside over an impeachment trial of themselves; the Senate has now authorized the chief justice to preside in such a circumstance. [2]
In 1826, Vice President John C. Calhoun himself requested a House impeachment inquiry be launched into him regarding allegations that he had profited from a contract during his tenure as United States secretary of war. [3] [4] His request was granted, and a House select committee conducted an impeachment inquiry which, in only a matter of weeks, found Calhoun innocent of wrongdoing. [4]
On September 26, 1973, a request by Vice President Spiro Agnew that an impeachment inquiry into him be launched was denied by Speaker of the House Carl Albert. [3] [4] Agnew had requested such an inquiry to investigate charges that he had received bribes from construction companies during his tenure as the governor of Maryland. [3] [4] Agnew cited the precedent in which Calhoun had requested and been granted an impeachment inquiry into himself in 1826. [3] [4] Agnew had hoped that a House investigation could serve as an alternate to a grand jury investigation and court litigation. [3] [4]
Speaker Albert discussed the potential inquiry with House Democratic leaders and House Parliamentarian Lewis Deschler, before deciding against granting one to Agnew. [3]
Bella Abzug, argued that this was the right decision, as the House needed to instead focus on starting an impeachment inquiry against President Richard Nixon relating to the Watergate break in. [3]
Weeks later, on October 10, 1973, as part of a plea bargain relating to a charge of tax evasion, Vice President Agnew resigned. [3]
Vice President Schuyler Colfax's name surfaced during witness testimony in a House investigation of the Crédit Mobilier of America scandal. [5]
Under this cloud of suspicion, on February 20, 1873 (less than a month before Colfax's term expired), Representative Fernando Wood introduced a resolution to investigate the vice president's conduct. [5] [6] The House voted 105 to 109 not to consider it. [6] James Noble Tyner, then, presented a second resolution which would refer the testimony to the House Committee on the Judiciary "with instructions to inquire whether anything in such testimony warrants articles of impeachment of any officer of the United States not a Member of this House, or makes it proper that further investigation should be ordered in this case." [6] This second resolution was agreed to without debate or division. [6] On February 24, Benjamin Butler submitted the committee's report. Debate was held briefly on February 24, before being postponed to February 26. Debate does not appear to have been taken up again. [6]
The main reasons why impeachment failed to arise are believed to be that the incident in question took place during Colfax's tenure as a representative (not as vice president), and because, when the actions became known, only a few weeks remained before his term expired. [7] [8]
In April 2007, United States Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) file impeachment resolution (H.Res. 333) against Vice President Dick Cheney, seeking his trial in the Senate on three charges. After months of inaction, Kucinich re-introduced the exact content of H. Res 333 as a new resolution numbered H.Res. 799 in November 2007.
Both resolutions were referred to the Judiciary Committee immediately after their introduction and the Committee did not consider either. Both resolutions expired upon the termination of the 110th United States Congress on January 3, 2009. [9] [10]
On September 24, 2021, Republican United States Representative Lauren Boebert introduced a resolution to impeach Vice President Kamala Harris over Harris' support for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. [11] It was cosponsored by Republicans Bob Good and Ralph Norman. [12] The resolution was referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary the same day, with no further action being taken. [13]
On June 12, 2023, Republican Representative Andy Ogles introduced a resolution to impeach Harris for the Biden administration's handling of security at the United States–Mexico border. It is co-sponsored by Republicans Lauren Boebert and Mary Miller. It was referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary. [14]
After Andrew Johnson's drunken behavior at the second inauguration of Abraham Lincoln (where Johnson was sworn-in as vice president), Senator Charles Sumner considered seeking to persuade members of House of the Representatives to pursue an impeachment and went as far as researching precedent on federal impeachment. [15]
James Falconer "Jefferson Jim" Wilson was an American lawyer and politician. He served as a Republican U.S. Congressman from Iowa's 1st congressional district during the American Civil War, and later as a two-term U.S. Senator from Iowa. He was a pioneer in the advancement of federal protection for civil rights.
During the presidency of George W. Bush, several American politicians sought to either investigate Bush for possible impeachable offenses, or to bring actual impeachment charges on the floor of the United States House of Representatives Judiciary Committee. The most significant of these efforts occurred on June 10, 2008, when Congressman Dennis Kucinich, along with co-sponsor Robert Wexler, introduced 35 articles of impeachment against Bush to the U.S. House of Representatives. The House voted 251 to 166 to refer the impeachment resolution to the Judiciary Committee on June 11, where no further action was taken on it. Bush's presidency ended on January 20, 2009, with the completion of his second term in office, rendering impeachment efforts moot.
Ralph Warren Norman Jr. is an American real estate developer and politician who has served as the U.S. representative for South Carolina's 5th congressional district since 2017. His district includes most of the South Carolina side of the Charlotte metropolitan area, along with outer portions of the Upstate and Midlands. A member of the Republican Party, Norman served as the South Carolina state representative for the 48th district from 2005 to 2007 and from 2009 to 2017.
The impeachment of Andrew Johnson was initiated on February 24, 1868, when the United States House of Representatives passed a resolution to impeach Andrew Johnson, the 17th president of the United States, for "high crimes and misdemeanors". The alleged high crimes and misdemeanors were afterwards specified in eleven articles of impeachment adopted by the House on March 2 and 3, 1868. The primary charge against Johnson was that he had violated the Tenure of Office Act. Specifically, that he had acted to remove from office Edwin Stanton and to replace him with Brevet Major General Lorenzo Thomas as secretary of war ad interim. The Tenure of Office Act had been passed by Congress in March 1867 over Johnson's veto with the primary intent of protecting Stanton from being fired without the Senate's consent. Stanton often sided with the Radical Republican faction and did not have a good relationship with Johnson.
On June 19, 2008, the Judicial Conference of the United States delivered to the United States House of Representatives notification certifying "its determination that consideration of impeachment of United States District Judge Thomas Porteous may be warranted." Later that year, the 110th Congress authorized its Judiciary Committee to establish a task Force to run an impeachment inquiry. The task force's authority was renewed by the 111th Congress on January 13, 2009. In May of that year, its authority was expanded to include an investigation of Samuel Kent, a judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, leading to his impeachment by the House of Representatives on June 19, 2009.
The impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson, 17th president of the United States, was held in the United States Senate and concluded with acquittal on three of eleven charges before adjourning sine die without a verdict on the remaining charges. It was the first impeachment trial of a U.S. president and was the sixth federal impeachment trial in U.S. history. The trial began March 5, 1868, and adjourned on May 26.
Various people and groups assert that former U.S. president Donald Trump engaged in impeachable activity both before and during his presidency, and talk of impeachment began before he took office. Grounds asserted for impeachment have included possible violations of the Foreign Emoluments Clause of the Constitution by accepting payments from foreign dignitaries; alleged collusion with Russia during the campaign for the 2016 United States presidential election; alleged obstruction of justice with respect to investigation of the collusion claim; and accusations of "Associating the Presidency with White Nationalism, Neo-Nazism and Hatred", which formed the basis of a resolution for impeachment brought on December 6, 2017.
The 46th and incumbent U.S. president Joe Biden has seen multiple efforts by some members of the Republican Party to impeach him. An impeachment inquiry into Biden was launched in September 2023, without a vote, by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who designated three House committees led by James Comer, chairman of House Committee on Oversight and Accountability. A number of prominent Republican lawmakers, along with Donald Trump and some of his political allies, have indicated the motivation behind efforts to impeach Biden is also driven by resentment over Trump's previous two impeachments.
During his presidency, Andrew Johnson, the 17th president of the United States, saw multiple efforts during his presidency to impeach him, culminating in his formal impeachment on February 24, 1868, which was followed by a Senate impeachment trial in which he was acquitted.
The first impeachment inquiry against Andrew Johnson was launched by a vote of the United States House of Representatives on January 7, 1867, to investigate the potential impeachment of the President of the United States, Andrew Johnson. It was run by the House Committee on the Judiciary.
The second impeachment inquiry against Andrew Johnson was an impeachment inquiry against United States President Andrew Johnson. It followed a previous inquiry in 1867. The second inquiry, unlike the first, was run by the House Select Committee on Reconstruction. The second inquiry ran from its authorization on January 27, 1868, until the House Select Committee on Reconstruction reported to Congress on February 22, 1868.
The House Select Committee on Reconstruction was a select committee which existed the United States House of Representatives during the 40th and 41st Congresses with a focus related to the Reconstruction Acts. The 39th Congress had had a similar joint committee called the United States Congressional Joint Committee on Reconstruction.
In the United States, an impeachment inquiry is an investigation or inquiry which usually occurs before a potential impeachment vote.
Samuel Chase, an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, was impeached by the United States House of Representatives on March 12, 1804 on eight articles of impeachment alleging misconduct. His impeachment trial before the United States Senate delivered an acquittal on March 1, 1805, with none of the eight articles receiving the two-thirds majority needed for a conviction.
Andrew Johnson became the first president of the United States to be impeached by the United States House of Representatives on February 24, 1868 after he acted to dismiss Edwin Stanton as secretary of war in disregard for the Tenure of Office Act.
Eleven articles of impeachment against United States President Andrew Johnson were adopted by the United States House of Representatives on March 2 and 3, 1868 as part of the impeachment of Johnson. An impeachment resolution had previously been adopted by the House on February 24, 1868. Each of the articles were a separate charge which Johnson would be tried for in his subsequent impeachment trial before the United States Senate.
In the United States, federal impeachment is the process by which the House of Representatives charges the president, vice president, or another civil federal officer for alleged misconduct. The House can impeach an individual with a simple majority of the present members or other criteria adopted by the House according to Article One, Section 2, Clause 5 of the U.S. Constitution.