A Quick Guide to the Impeachment Process
Impeachment of the President of the United States is more than one trial or vote. As we wrote earlier, this is a long process, which includes the following stages: decision of the House of Representatives on articles of impeachment, discussion of these articles in the Judicial Committee of the House of Representatives, vote of the House on impeachment, which must include at least one approved article, determination of the Senate on trial, trial in the Senate, and then judgment of the Senate.
If you are still confused by the process, we do not blame you – after all, the process was developed centuries ago, and so far in US history, we have impeached only two presidents (Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, and none of them were removed from office; Richard Nixon resigned before being impeached). Luckily, here’s an infographic to make it easy to understand the process and just what you need to know, courtesy of BBC / Reddit :
If you are wondering where we are in the process, according to the infographic, we are only in the early stages and are currently deciding whether there is “sufficient evidence of wrongdoing” through ongoing public hearings and testimonies.
If they are determined, we will move on to the Chamber, where we will make decisions on articles of impeachment / put them to a vote. From there, a majority vote (which is likely given the Democratic-led House of Representatives) will result in a Senate decision. As you might guess, the Senate will most likely not support impeachment with a Republican majority.
If you need more details, USA Today has also written an impeachment guide with current Republican and Democratic counts in both the House of Representatives and Senate, as well as information on lawsuits.
And if you want to keep up with impeachment proceedings, there are many resources. You can subscribe to the daily impeachment newsletters of the New York Times or CNN ; both Vox and WNYC also have podcasts dedicated to updates in case you want to listen to them.