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BackStory

295: Impeachment Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow: High Crimes and Misdemeanors in American History

BackStory

BackStory

History, Education

4.72.9K Ratings

🗓️ 27 September 2019

⏱️ 29 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On Tuesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced she’s launching a formal impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump. The announcement comes after news of a July phone call between Trump and Urkanian president Volodymyr Zelensky, in which Trump requested Zelensky launch an investigation into political rival and Democratic presidential contender, Joe Biden.

So on this episode of BackStory, we’re bringing you a roundtable conversation with Joanne, Nathan and Brian about impeachment in the past, present and possibly future of American history.

Image: A coalition of progressive activist groups, including MoveOn.org, hold a rally at the Capitol calling on Congress to impeach President Trump on Thursday, Sept. 26, 2019. (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call via AP Images)

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Transcript

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0:00.0

Matrix Founding for Backstories provided by an anonymous donor, the National Dama for the Humanities, and the Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation.

0:11.0

From Virginia Humanities, this is Backstories.

0:20.0

Welcome to Backstories, the show that explains the history behind the headlines. I'm Brian Ballot.

0:25.0

I'm Joanne Freeman.

0:26.0

And I'm Nathan Connolly.

0:29.0

Each week, along with our colleague Ed Ayers, we explore a different part of American history.

0:34.0

In this episode though, we're going to bring you something a little different.

0:38.0

An extended conversation between Brian, Nathan, and myself about a topic that has pretty much dominated the news over the last few days, impeachment.

0:48.0

If you need catching up, here's a brief rundown.

0:51.0

On Tuesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced she's launching a formal impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.

0:58.0

The announcement comes after news of a phone call between President Trump and Ukrainian President, the Vladimir Zelensky in July.

1:07.0

During the call, Trump requested Zelensky launch an investigation into his political rival and democratic presidential contender, Joe Biden.

1:17.0

Trump admits he talked about Biden with Zelensky. On Wednesday, the White House released a summary of the call, confirming the reports.

1:26.0

And on Thursday, the House Intelligence Committee released a redacted version of the whistleblower complaint related to the call and the complaint that really made this whole episode public.

1:38.0

Here's what Pelosi had to say about Trump on Tuesday.

1:41.0

The actions of the Trump presidency revealed the dishonorable fact of the president's betrayal of his oath of office, betrayal of our national security, and betrayal of the integrity of our elections.

1:54.0

Meanwhile, Trump is condemning the investigation, calling it a witch hunt. And just a note, we recorded this episode on Thursday, but this continues to be a developing story.

2:07.0

If your head is spinning right now, know that you're not alone. There's a lot going on and there's a lot of talk about impeachment in US history, which is why we wanted to do what we do best.

2:20.0

Offer some historical perspective.

2:23.0

So think of this episode as a kind of emergency roundtable on impeachment in the past, present, and possibly future of American history.

2:33.0

Why don't we go back, Joanne, to the very beginning, to the founders in the Constitution?

2:39.0

What do they have to say about impeachment when they first drafted the Constitution?

...

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