This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Wednesday, February 5th, 2020.

I'm Caleb Brown.

As the Senate appears poised to acquit the President on Articles of Impeachment

sent over from the House, just what was the point of this? Was it a worthy enterprise, a

witch hunt? Was it a waste of time and resources or even a failed attempt that by

virtue of its failure will unshackle an erratic president.

Cato's Gene Healy, author of the Cato paper Indispensable Remedy,

explores these ideas.

As of this recording, it looks like the Senate, after having not called any witnesses in the

impeachment trial of the president, that they're going to acquit. So in that case what really was the point of this exercise?

Well that's a good question. I mean I don't think acquittals a surprise to anyone. I don't think we have to strain too hard to explain that outcome. It was always going to be a heavy lift to get 20 Republican senators to cross the aisle and apparently a heavy lift to get any of them to cross the aisle.

But, you know, no president has, presidents are infrequently impeached.

Donald Trump's only the third.

And in the two prior Senate trials,

you didn't get a conviction either. And the outcome, at least if you believe the recent polls,

may be roughly where the public is. Some of the polls that have come out in the last week or so show about even just

under half of Americans polled support removal In the polls that ask, clear majorities disagree with the

proposition that it was a quote unquote perfect call.

Most say that the president did something wrong

slash abused his power.

But there's, while there's more support for the president's removal than you typically see in any presidency,

I mean, Nixon didn't get to this point in impeachment polls until the summer of 1974 shortly before he was forced to resign.

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