Impeachment of two U.S. Presidents, Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton - Essay Example

A number of U.S Presidents were impeached from office, but the paper focuses on the comparison between Bill Clinton’s impeachment with Richard Nixon’s in the 1970s. In 1974, the United States court case against Richard Nixon took place. The Judiciary Committee passed three articles, but Nixon resigned from power prior to the vote by the whole House. The first article in accusation of Nixon stated that he had made misleading and false statements to try and cover up the Watergate allegation.

Watergate was one of the plushest Hotels in Washington, yet its scandal was identified with the unlawful activities of the Nixon administration. It was carried out by five men employed by the re-election of Nixon’s campaign. It was organized to repair refined bugging instruments in the entire Democratic Party headquarters. The five men were paid with funds allocated for the Nixon re-election campaign. Investigations finally revealed that the administration upheld a “secret intelligence fund” to probe political players and had intentionally spoiled Democratic campaigns by formulating leaks to the press.

The second article argued that Nixon had breached the lawful rights of citizens and obstructed the due and right administration of justice. Clause three provided that Nixon failed to give some required information and papers to the House Judiciary committee. On the other hand, Bill Clinton’s charges in the U.S court case took place in 1998. Three articles of impeachment were created by the House Judiciary Committee, though just two were approved by the entire House. At the time when the articles were conveyed to the Senate, the number of majority vote of two thirds was not attained to make it possible to convict Clinton.

The foremost item approved by the House gave the reason that Clinton had dishonored the constitutional oath by demoralizing the integrity of office as well as betraying his trust as the American President. Monica Lewinsky’s sexual relationship with President Clinton was one of the reasons for his impeachment. Central to the entire scandal were claims that Lewinsky performed oral sex on Clinton. After the immunity test, Clinton was found innocent and resumed office. The other reason provided in the second article was that Clinton prevented, hindered, and obstructed the management of justice.

The most notable fact in this case is that Nixon resigned but Clinton ignored the pressure and took it to an appeal and won the case. Nixon decided that he had to resign because he no longer had a strong political support in the Congress to enable him complete his term in Power. To him, the move was for the sake of the American citizens’ interests. On the other hand, Clinton made it clear that he was not ready to voluntarily leave office. He rejected the plea to resign even before the requests for him to step down were made.

Again, he could not confess to breaking the law by lying under pledge concerning his affair with Lewinsky, in the last hours of his impeachment. Clinton maintained that he had not committed perjury. From the above accounts, the differences between the reasons for impeaching the two presidents are clear. However, some similarities can be observed. Rationally, the articles state that both Clinton and Nixon obstructed and impeded the administration of justice. In addition, the two