“The founders thought bribery was a-ok so long as a president does it in their first term” one person tweeted.
John Yoo, a former Dept.of Justice lawyer who wrote the now-infamous flawed memos President George W. Bush used to support the use of torture, including waterboarding – which is a war crime – is out with another flawed “legal” theory. Yoo says President Donald Trump should not be impeached before an election, claiming the founding fathers would have opposed such action.
“I’m glad they’re reading the Constitution and citing the Framers for once but they’ve got it exactly backwards,” Yoo, getting it exactly backwards, told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham Wednesday night.
“What the Framers thought was the American people would judge a president at the time of an election, they would have never wanted an impeachment within a year of an election, it’s up to the American people.”
Yoo offered nothing to support his claim, and in fact, as some on Twitter suggested, tell that to Andrew Johnson, the 17th president of the United States.
On February 24, 1868, the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly impeached President Johnson, by a vote of 128 – 47. He was not removed by the Senate, and served until the end of his term in 1869, less than a year after the end of his three month Senate trial.
This Princeton scientist sums up the facts perfectly:
Sadly, Yoo is currently a Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law.
Others respond: