ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — 10News has been getting a lot of good questions on social media from people wanting to know more about the impeachment process.
Here are some quick answers to help make you smarter:
QUESTION: Can a President who has been impeached run for re-election?
ANSWER: Yes. A conviction in a Senate trial only removes a president from office, it does not prevent them from running in future elections. However, if a president is convicted, the Senate may take a separate vote to prevent that person from holding a federal office ever again.
QUESTION: How much money is the impeachment process costing taxpayers?
ANSWER: We don’t know. There have been a handful of efforts to try and calculate the cost to taxpayers, but it’s complicated when looking at staff hours spent on impeachment because staff would have been paid their salaries regardless. “I don’t know of anyone who has tried to assess the cost of the impeachment process, and it actually seems like a pretty odd thing to try to measure,” Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy Senior Fellow Matt Gardner said in an email to 10News. Some reports estimated that the investigation and impeachment of former President Bill Clinton cost as much as $50 million, however that investigation took much longer than the Trump impeachment process.
QUESTION: Can the Speaker of the House be impeached?
ANSWER: Sort of. Technically, members of Congress don’t get impeached because there are other methods for removing them from office. Members of Congress can be expelled, which is a simpler process than impeachment because the House and Senate can vote to expel their own members without involving the other chamber. It takes a two-thirds majority to expel a member of Congress, under the Constitution.
QUESTION: The House has approved articles of impeachment, what happens next?
ANSWER: The process now goes to the Senate, where Republicans have the majority. There are no set rules for a Senate trial so the first thing they will do is pass a resolution laying out trial procedures. A team of lawmakers from the House, called managers, play the role of prosecutors. The president has defense lawyers of his own and the Senate acts as the jury. When the trial is over, the Senate will vote. If fewer than two-thirds find the president guilty, President Trump remains in office. If two-thirds or more find him guilty, President Trump is removed from office and Vice President Pence takes over as president. There is no appeal to the process.
QUESTION: Did any House Representatives go against their party on the impeachment votes?
ANSWER: Yes. Two Democrats, Jefferson Van Drew of New Jersey and Collin Peterson of Minnesota, voted “nay” on the abuse of power article of impeachment. Three Democrats, Van Drew, Peterson and Jared Golden of Maine, voted against the obstruction of Congress article. Democrat and presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard was the lone House member to vote “present” instead of “yea” or “nay”. Not one Republican crossed the aisle on either vote.
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