Warning, a major attack of the history nerd is coming:
Being smart MinnPost readers, I'm guessing that most of you could answer the trivia question: Who were the only two presidents to be impeached? Answer: Andrew Johnson, who served out Lincoln's second term after the assassination, and Bill Clinton. Nope, can't count Richard Nixon on a technicality. He resigned before the House could vote up the articles of impeachment.
And you probably know that, although in common parlance impeachment is often used to refer to the removal a president from office, in fact the impeachment is only the first step — equivalent to an indictment — which triggers a trial in the Senate. No president has ever been impeached, convicted and removed.
And chances are, you remember what Bill Clinton did to get impeached, so we won't talk about that in front of the children. But unless you are a serious history nerd, I suspect that you can't — without benefit of the Google — recall what Andrew Johnson did to get impeached (and to come much closer — within one vote actually — to being convicted and removed from office).
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