Did you know that senators shouldn’t be called ‘jurors’ in an impeachment trial? Here’s a roundup of stories that give behind-the-scenes facts and context to the news event of the year – so far.
With President Donald Trump’s frequent use of the term “witch hunt” he paints himself as a victim. The women persecuted in one of history’s darkest chapters should not be forgotten so easily.
Russia’s cabinet resigned Wednesday, and it looked like an unexpected move. But a Russia scholar says it is part of a plan by leader Vladimir Putin to maintain power after he leaves office.
An expert on Watergate says that today’s House Republicans have taken precisely the opposite position than the GOP took in 1974 on the president’s power to withhold documents from Congress.
In the Trump era, one crisis – even one as grave as impeachment – is simply replaced by another. In more tranquil times such crises may spell the end of a presidency – but not so in the age of Trump.
The impeachment vote is the latest, and most extreme, example of a power struggle between the executive branch and Congress that has existed since George Washington was president.
Democrats blasted Senate leader Mitch McConnell for saying the GOP would run an impeachment trial as President Trump wished. But senators are not held to a juror’s neutrality standard during a trial.
Public officials are now in the spotlight: Does the public view them as professionals, bound by duty, or as elites who invoke ideals while pursuing their own agendas?
Peter C. Mancall, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
When the founders wrote the Constitution, they had to devise a punishment fitting for a civil servant’s impeachment. One possible punishment: banishment from the community.
President Donald Trump and his supporters exhibit the methods of science deniers. Like anti-evolutionists and flat-earthers, they reject what they don’t want to believe and accept what they favor.
When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was indicted on corruption charges Wednesday, both the charges and Netanyahu’s response to them were reminiscent of the situation President Trump is in.
Ukrainian President Zelenskiy has some not-so-funny issues facing him. Having his country ridiculed in the impeachment hearings won’t make solving them easier.
Since its beginnings, theater has been where the public can see what was happening, a venue for transparency and a point of view on real-life scenarios. It defines the American political landscape.
Professor in U.S. Politics and U.S. Foreign Relations at the United States Studies Centre and in the Discipline of Government and International Relations, University of Sydney