Columbia Law School professor explains what it takes for a president to be impeached

<bi-shortcode id="summary-shortcode" data-type="summary-shortcode" class="mceNonEditable" contenteditable="false">Summary List Placement</bi-shortcode><p><em>Following is a transcript of the video.</em></p><p><strong>Narrator: </strong>Well, the Constitution provides that the president can be impeached for treason, bribery, and what it calls other high crimes and misdemeanors.&nbsp;</p><p>The Constitution doesn't actually define what "other high crimes and misdemeanors" means.&nbsp;The historical sense is that it basically means,&nbsp;kind of, serious political crimes,&nbsp;sort of crimes against the state, crimes that involve abuse of office,&nbsp;abuse of power, abuse of trust.</p><p>The combination of the scholarly learning and of the handful of&nbsp;impeachments that we've had, suggest that the behavior doesn't&nbsp;actually have to be a crime. We have had some people, mostly judges,&nbsp;who've been impeached for behavior which wasn't technically a crime, and not all crimes would be the basis for impeachment.</p><p>If somebody is convicted of speeding or jaywalking, or maybe even on&nbsp;drunk driving, that might not be considered serious enough to justify impeachment.</p><p>The process would begin in the House of Representatives.&nbsp;The House of Representatives acts like a grand jury.&nbsp;It has the sole power to start an impeachment. They can do that by a simple majority vote.</p><p>They would, in effect, adopt articles of impeachment.&nbsp;They would adopt some number of relatively specific charges that they say is the basis that would justify forcing a president or a judge&nbsp;to forfeit their office.</p><p>That would then proceed to the Senate.&nbsp;The impeachment is actually what the House of Representatives does.&nbsp;The conviction is by, would be by the Senate.&nbsp;And the Senate acts as the court, to try the impeachment.</p><p><em>EDITOR'S NOTE: This video was originally published on February 27, 2017.&nbsp;</em></p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-impeachment-process-president-congress-constitution-2017-2#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p>
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