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1. I am genuinely alarmed that no one seems to have explained to the president of the United States the basic principles of impeachment as a constitutional mechanism. So here’s a small refresher.
2. The president “can’t imagine the courts allowing it.” But the Framers quite deliberately vested the power of impeachment in the House, and of trial in the Senate. “The courts” have no role to play here whatsoever.
3. The president says, "It's high crimes AND misdemeanors, not high crimes OR misdemeanors.” Which is true! But it’s not a dual requirement, it’s an eighteenth-century legal term of art.
4. He insists “there was no high crime, and there was no misdemeanor.” But not all impeachable offenses are statutory crimes; not all statutory crimes are impeachable offenses. The president is making a basic category error here.
5. Impeachment is a complicated topic. But given that it’s now a live question, I sincerely hope the president gets better constitutional advice than his comments currently reflect. And for him—and for everyone else—this is a good place to start: theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…
