Calls for President Donald Trump's impeachment are growing. Some even believe that Special Counsel Robert Mueller, in a surprise press conference on Wednesday, indirectly called upon Congress to begin the proceedings.
Naturally, Trump is railing against the idea that Congress could exercise its duty of oversight. While talking to reporters ahead of his commencement speech at the United States Air Force Academy on Thursday, Trump decried impeachment as a "dirty, filthy, disgusting word," right after indicating that he has no idea how the process works.
Watch below:
Trump said:
"I can't imagine the courts allowing [impeachment]. I’ve never gone into it. I never thought that would even be possible to be using that word. To me, it's a dirty word — the word impeach. It's a dirty, filthy, disgusting word.”
There's just one little problem: impeachment doesn't fall under the jurisdiction of the courts. Only the House of Representatives can impeach a president and only the Senate can determine that president's guilt.
This isn't the first time that Trump has suggested he can evade impeachment by way of the judicial branch.
Not to belabor the point, but, as the United States Constitution that Trump has sworn to defend states:
"The House of Representatives shall...have the sole Power of Impeachment...The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments."
People were quick to point this out to him.
Trump continued to demonstrate a lack of understanding regarding impeachment. This time, it was about the violations that mandate impeachment, which the constitution lays out as "Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors." Trump asserted that none of these standards have been met:
“You know, it's high crimes and, not with — or — it’s high crimes and misdemeanors. There was no high crime and there was no misdemeanor. So how do you impeach based on that?”
However, the term "high crimes and misdemeanors" isn't explicitly defined in the Constitution, but many experts believe that a violation of public faith falls under that umbrella. One could argue that Trump has violated public faith with every one of the thousands of lies he's told alone, as well as other apparent acts of corruption.
Whether or not the House of Representatives will impeach remains unclear, but that "dirty, filthy, disgusting word" seems to be on the lips of more lawmakers with each passing day.
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