Special Retort: Impeachment of the president

Editor’s note: Answers are edited for length and clarity. Any instances of agreement are accidental.

It already seems years ago, but at the time the following interviews were conducted, it was just two days since the U.S. Senate fulfilled what seemed a preordained outcome by acquitting the president on impeachment charges. While the national TV news networks consigned that story to the D block most nights during the trial, we see it as the most important political, legal and constitutional story of at least the past two decades. But now it’s over. The only question we want to ask this week is this one:

How do you think history will come to regard the impeachment of President Donald John Trump?

Paul Anderson, former state Supreme Court associate justice: I do not believe that when the final chapter this story is written, history will treat Trump and the Senate Republicans well for how they have behaved in this process. That said, it is fair to say that strategic, tactical and procedural mistakes were made on both sides the aisle. The question to be answered by history, coming out of this whole process, will be the reputation of our institutions, the presidency and how the powers of that office are exercised, and how Congress acts as a check and balance in our system of separation of the powers. The real question to be answered following this whole process is how well our institutions of government will endure to serve the long-term interests of our civil democratic society.

Peter Bell, conservative writer, former Met Council chair: I think they will regard it unfavorably. I think that they will say that the Senate did not act with courage in doing their constitutional duty. I believe that what Mr. Trump did rose to the level of impeachment and the Senate chose not to have a full vetting of the facts and acquitted him. I think it will be seen as a very partisan event. The other thing that I think is likely to happen is that we will see impeachments more frequently. And I think that will be very destructive to our political culture.

Erick Kaardal, populist government watchdog attorney: My view is that the impeachment was so wedded to the approach that the Democrats were taking to the incumbent president from the beginning, to impeach him. It’s going to be viewed historically in a very partisan light, because of the preceding [Robert] Mueller Russia investigation not showing collusion. And also the fact that there weren’t any Republicans that joined in the House vote regarding impeachment. And the Senate vote only had one Republican joining for conviction. So I think it’s going to be viewed as a partisan impeachment and a real compromise of the bipartisan approach that heretofore had been used in the impeachment of presidents.

Amy Koch, former GOP Senate majority leader: Wow! That is an excellent question. I think it’s going to be seen and looked at as part of such a volatile time in U.S. politics. Both sides are going to write the story — usually, the victor writes history. I think it will have a little more of that slant, unless something else happens and depending on the election. There are so many things unknown right now. I hope this time will be seen as sort of in the rearview mirror. And that between the crazy Iowa caucuses, the impeachment trial and the 2020 election, that we will look at this as sort of the high-water mark, where politics turned and people started listening to each other and being more respectful. In other words, that we sort of reached a crescendo and came back to a more reasonable time.

Patrick Coleman, acquisitions librarian, Minnesota Historical Society: Good question. And I am interested in it because I want to live long enough to see how history treats this. But I think it will be viewed as moral failure on the part of the Republican Party. I think it is going to change the balance of power. I think it is going to have deep consequences, especially if Trump is reelected. And I think the blame is going to be on the Republican Party — the leadership of the Republican Party. I hope that is how it’s viewed. But maybe not. It could be the opposite. It [the Democrats’ choice to impeach] could be viewed as the worst political decision of the 21st Century so far. That is how it’s looking immediately. But history has a way of filtering that stuff out.

Greg Davids, former GOP House Taxes Committee chair: That it was a scam and a sham and that the articles of impeachment were not impeachable offenses. He will forever be acquitted. It was purely political. It was shameful by the Democrats to send over non-impeachable offenses that didn’t occur and to rip this country further in half, let alone the president’s State of the Union speech the other night. It was just a shameful time that the Democrats perpetrated upon the citizens of the United States. He is not guilty, acquitted. It was a scam and a sham.

Mary Kunesh-Podein, DFL House member, educator: I think people will be reflective. For those who have supported the behaviors and the illegal actions of our president, it will, I think, certainly make people think long and hard again. I think we’ll put in place some safeguards so that this sort of things does not happen, so that there isn’t this freedom for presidents to do what they want to do regardless of those behind them. I think that the Republicans who are in office are going to leave shamed, and I wouldn’t doubt if that would start in the next election cycle, as people realize the significance and the consequences of his behavior.

David Schultz, Hamline University political science professor, attorney: That it was multiple mistakes produced in an atmosphere of partisan breakdown. I think the Democrats were foolish to have impeached, knowing that you weren’t going to get a conviction. The Republicans were foolish to do a show trial and not perform their constitutional duties. And Donald Trump learned nothing from the entire process. We’ll look at this as a product of intense polarization and disagreement. In many ways, Trump and this whole process is the product of something that has been building at least since the [Robert] Bork [U.S. Supreme Court] nomination hearings and continuing to this day.

But I’m not convinced, as so many people are saying that either a.) any one party is at fault — because I think all of them are, and b.) maybe I am being Pollyannaish, but I don’t think that this is the start of fascism and the ruination of our constitution. We have faced other more serious problems. Somehow, after [President Richard] Nixon, we figured out how to move on. We will, somehow after Trump and all this, figure out how to move on.