# Trump is the first president impeached in his first term. **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [December 19, 2019, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-the-first-president-impeached-in-his-first-term/845064 "2019-12-19T02:42:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2019, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-the-first-president-impeached-in-his-first-term/845064/1 "2019-12-19T02:42:12Z")
For once he’s gotten something in his life that he actually earned. I don’t know what if any consequences this will actually have. But I know that if Trump hates it, then it’s the right thing to do. And judging by his Twitter feed for the past 72 hours, boy howdy does he hate it. Though we’ve all become somewhat numb to the impact of what’s going on, and this seems destined to die in the senate, I look forward to watching what happens when everyone realizes they are on record, the eye of history is upon them, and the election is barely 11 months away, and they are staking the stability of their cushy re-electable 6-year-terms on a fragile gasbag who can last at most 8 years and probably not even 4. Today is a good day. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2019, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-the-first-president-impeached-in-his-first-term/845064/2 "2019-12-19T02:48:27Z")
Andrew Johnson? First term ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2019, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-the-first-president-impeached-in-his-first-term/845064/3 "2019-12-19T02:49:25Z")
Andrew Johnson only served one (partial) term and he was impeached during it. So two out of the three impeachments were during the first term. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2019, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-the-first-president-impeached-in-his-first-term/845064/4 "2019-12-19T02:56:51Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > Andrew Johnson? First term Johnson was not elected to any presidential term and did not serve any full presidential term. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2019, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-the-first-president-impeached-in-his-first-term/845064/5 "2019-12-19T03:03:44Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > Johnson was not elected to any presidential term and did not serve any full presidential term. So he wasn’t impeached in his first term? Are you saying that his Presidency didn’t have an actual term? I agree it wasn’t a full term but it was a term, right? ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2019, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-the-first-president-impeached-in-his-first-term/845064/6 "2019-12-19T03:18:54Z")
Well can we all at least agree that Trump’s finally won the popular vote? ---
**Author:** ![Flyer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/flyer/32/7298_2.png) [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2019, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-the-first-president-impeached-in-his-first-term/845064/7 "2019-12-19T03:22:29Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > Though we’ve all become somewhat numb to the impact of what’s going on, and this seems destined to die in the senate, I look forward to watching what happens when everyone realizes they are on record, the eye of history is upon them, and the election is barely 11 months away, and they are staking the stability of their cushy re-electable 6-year-terms on a fragile gasbag who can last at most 8 years and probably not even 4. > > Today is a good day. You do realize, don’t you, that it’s still very much an open question which side will be helped in the election and which side will be hurt by the impeachment? Support for impeachment among independents never has broken 50%. > **[Do Americans Support Impeaching Trump?](https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/impeachment-polls/)** > > FiveThirtyEight is tracking polls that ask whether respondents support impeaching President Trump. How do you think they’ll vote in November? ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2019, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-the-first-president-impeached-in-his-first-term/845064/8 "2019-12-19T03:25:55Z")
Trump will be the first impeached president to stand for re-election, presuming that he’s acquitted by the senate. At that point, I think the collective disgust within middle class America that spurred the midterm results will result in a democratic landslide in 2020. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2019, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-the-first-president-impeached-in-his-first-term/845064/9 "2019-12-19T04:09:00Z")
> [@Flyer](#): > > You do realize, don’t you, that it’s still very much an open question which side will be helped in the election and which side will be hurt by the impeachment? Do you believe impeachment helps the Republican side? ---
**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2019, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-the-first-president-impeached-in-his-first-term/845064/10 "2019-12-19T04:11:42Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > Do you believe impeachment helps the Republican side? If they can spin it as an illegal attempted coup, which seems to be their current game, yes. Republican voters appear to be morons who will believe literally anything they’re fed. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2019, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-the-first-president-impeached-in-his-first-term/845064/11 "2019-12-19T04:12:35Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > So he wasn’t impeached in his first term? Are you saying that his Presidency didn’t have an actual term? I agree it wasn’t a full term but it was a term, right? Johnson completed Lincoln’s second term. He never served a term of his own. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2019, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-the-first-president-impeached-in-his-first-term/845064/12 "2019-12-19T04:22:02Z")
> [@TimeWinder](#): > > If they can spin it as an illegal attempted coup, which seems to be their current game, yes. Republican voters appear to be morons who will believe literally anything they’re fed. I don’t want to assume they’re so dogshit dumb as that, which is why I welcome this opportunity to see the process work itself out. Naturally there are some who will never stop chugging the kool-aid, but fence-sitters are going to take notice as the collapse of this house of cards becomes more imminent. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2019, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-the-first-president-impeached-in-his-first-term/845064/13 "2019-12-19T04:27:06Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > Johnson completed Lincoln’s second term. He never served a term of his own. He was eligible to serve out that term and be elected to a second term, just as Teddy Roosevelt did, and Calvin Coolidge, and Harry Truman, and LBJ. It’s simply an abuse of language to say he was not in his first term. ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2019, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-the-first-president-impeached-in-his-first-term/845064/14 "2019-12-19T04:28:08Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > Johnson completed Lincoln’s second term. He never served a term of his own. The distinction I heard is that Trump is the first president up for election who has been impeached. Johnson was never going to get the Republican nomination for the next election. ---
**Author:** ![Ashtura](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ashtura/32/2963_2.png) [@Ashtura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashtura)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2019, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-the-first-president-impeached-in-his-first-term/845064/15 "2019-12-19T04:29:41Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > Do you believe impeachment helps the Republican side? [Polls seem to be tending that way.](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.newsweek.com/trump-defeats-democratic-rivals-support-impeachment-removal-drops-new-national-polls-1477579%3famp=1) I predict in the end it will be a wash, neither helping nor hurting anybody, really. Everybody’s already dug in and Trump’s approval goes up and down depending on whatever it currently going on and then stabilizes. How it will effect 2020 I don’t know. A lot can happen during that time. We don’t even know who he’s running against. I think it will be a very close election. ---
**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2019, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-the-first-president-impeached-in-his-first-term/845064/16 "2019-12-19T04:30:34Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > I don’t want to assume they’re so dogshit dumb as that, which is why I welcome this opportunity to see the process work itself out. Naturally there are some who will never stop chugging the kool-aid, but fence-sitters are going to take notice as the collapse of this house of cards becomes more imminent. I hope you’re right. But we’ve been saying basically this for almost four years now, and Trump and the GOP poll at almost exactly where they did then. So I don’t _believe_ you’re right. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2019, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-the-first-president-impeached-in-his-first-term/845064/17 "2019-12-19T04:36:07Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > It’s simply an abuse of language to say he was not in his first term. Yes, and it’s a goddamn shame, but life is replete with injustice. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2019, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-the-first-president-impeached-in-his-first-term/845064/18 "2019-12-19T04:44:04Z")
> [@TimeWinder](#): > > I hope you’re right. > > But we’ve been saying basically this for almost four years now, and Trump and the GOP poll at almost exactly where they did then. So I don’t _believe_ you’re right. I definitely get that fatigue and I get that skepticism. It feels like trials of flunkies have come and gone (though Manafort is in jail, Flynn is about to be sentenced, Epstein is literally physically dead). It feels like investigative efforts have fallen flat - Mueller turned out to be a milquetoast balls-and-strikes Republican, no different than he ever sold himself - neutered himself and punted the hard questions to Congress. Of course there’s no guarantee Republicans won’t bury their heads deep in the desert sands of their own ass, to mix some metaphors there, but different things are happening now. Trump is an impeached president. House access to his money-laundering financials are closer than they’ve ever been before, likely decided in June or earlier. The Senate will soon have to go on record in the matter, and Democrats have quite a bit of say in determining the rules of the process. There are a lot of wild cards and any crack in the dam could prove catastrophic. That’s a long way to say that this is all a process, and it’s an uncertain process, and it’s good that it’s proceeding. ---
**Author:** ![nelliebly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nelliebly/32/5422_2.png) [@nelliebly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nelliebly)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2019, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-the-first-president-impeached-in-his-first-term/845064/19 "2019-12-19T05:07:20Z")
From **Ashtura** ’s link: > [@](#): > > But the majority of responders still feel that the president abused the power of his office to gain information about a political opponent to help his position for his 2020 reelection campaign. Over half—51 percent—of those polled believe he did Seriously? They think he abused the power of his office for political gain, but they don’t think he should be impeached? Is this impaired IQ or impaired morality? ---
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2019, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-the-first-president-impeached-in-his-first-term/845064/20 "2019-12-19T05:16:58Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > I definitely get that fatigue and I get that skepticism. It feels like trials of flunkies have come and gone (though Manafort is in jail, Flynn is about to be sentenced, Epstein is literally physically dead). It feels like investigative efforts have fallen flat - Mueller turned out to be a milquetoast balls-and-strikes Republican, no different than he ever sold himself - neutered himself and punted the hard questions to Congress. > > Of course there’s no guarantee Republicans won’t bury their heads deep in the desert sands of their own ass, to mix some metaphors there, but different things are happening now. Trump is an impeached president. House access to his money-laundering financials are closer than they’ve ever been before, likely decided in June or earlier. The Senate will soon have to go on record in the matter, and Democrats have quite a bit of say in determining the rules of the process. There are a lot of wild cards and any crack in the dam could prove catastrophic. > > That’s a long way to say that this is all a process, and it’s an uncertain process, and it’s good that it’s proceeding. What does Epstein have to do with anything? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-the-first-president-impeached-in-his-first-term/845064.md?page=2)