Did you know that senators shouldn’t be called ‘jurors’ in an impeachment trial? Here’s a roundup of stories that give behind-the-scenes facts and context to the news event of the year – so far.
US President Donald Trump has tweeted ‘Witch Hunt’ approximately once every three days since his inauguration two years ago.
The Crucible (1996)/IMDB
With President Donald Trump’s frequent use of the term “witch hunt” he paints himself as a victim. The women persecuted in one of history’s darkest chapters should not be forgotten so easily.
Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., signs the oath book after being sworn in for the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, Thursday, Jan. 16, 2020.
Senate Television via AP
Russia’s cabinet resigned Wednesday, and it looked like an unexpected move. But a Russia scholar says it is part of a plan by leader Vladimir Putin to maintain power after he leaves office.
Republican lawmakers are seen as Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) oversees a vote on the second article of impeachment against President Donald Trump in the House of Representatives, Dec. 18, 2019.
Matt McClain/The Washington Post via Getty Images
An expert on Watergate says that today’s House Republicans have taken precisely the opposite position than the GOP took in 1974 on the president’s power to withhold documents from Congress.
Seven democratic candidates convened in Los Angeles for a debate.
AP Photo/Chris Carlson
In the Trump era, one crisis – even one as grave as impeachment – is simply replaced by another. In more tranquil times such crises may spell the end of a presidency – but not so in the age of Trump.
The U.S. Capitol, where the vote to impeach President Trump is expected to take place.
AP/J. Scott Applewhite
The impeachment vote is the latest, and most extreme, example of a power struggle between the executive branch and Congress that has existed since George Washington was president.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., fields questions from reporters about an impeachment trial in the Senate, Dec. 10, 2019.
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
Democrats blasted Senate leader Mitch McConnell for saying the GOP would run an impeachment trial as President Trump wished. But senators are not held to a juror’s neutrality standard during a trial.
To some, White House aide Jennifer Williams and Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman are impartial truth-tellers; to others, they are power-hungry bureaucrats.
AP Photo/Andrew Harnik
Public officials are now in the spotlight: Does the public view them as professionals, bound by duty, or as elites who invoke ideals while pursuing their own agendas?
President Donald Trump waves as he boards Air Force One, June 6, 2019.
AP/Alex Brandon
Peter C. Mancall, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
When the founders wrote the Constitution, they had to devise a punishment fitting for a civil servant’s impeachment. One possible punishment: banishment from the community.
Two of Alexander Hamilton’s Federalist Papers addressed impeachment.
AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta
President Donald Trump and his supporters exhibit the methods of science deniers. Like anti-evolutionists and flat-earthers, they reject what they don’t want to believe and accept what they favor.
Trump: there was no quid pro quo.
Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA
When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was indicted on corruption charges Wednesday, both the charges and Netanyahu’s response to them were reminiscent of the situation President Trump is in.
Ukrainian President Zelenskiy has some not-so-funny issues facing him. Having his country ridiculed in the impeachment hearings won’t make solving them easier.
The stage is set and the cast members are in their places for impeachment hearings.
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
Since its beginnings, theater has been where the public can see what was happening, a venue for transparency and a point of view on real-life scenarios. It defines the American political landscape.
Boris Yeltsin shakes hands with Russia’s most powerful businessmen in Moscow.
AP Photo
Professor in U.S. Politics and U.S. Foreign Relations at the United States Studies Centre and in the Discipline of Government and International Relations, University of Sydney