Charles T. Canady Quotes

If the president were to displace from office a man whose merits require that he should continue in it… he will be impeachable by this House before the Senate, for such an act of mal-administration; for I contend that the wanton removal of meritorious officers would subject him to impeachment and removal from his own high trust.

I've analyzed the best I can... and I have not found an impeachable offense, and therefore resignation is not an acceptable course.

Impeachment is not confined alone to acts which are forbidden by the Constitution or Federal statutes. The better sustained and modern view is that the provision for impeachment in the Constitution applies not only to high crimes and misdemeanors as those words were understood at common law but also acts which are not defined as criminal and made subject to indictment, and also to those which affect the public welfare. Thus an official may be impeached for offenses of a political character and for gross betrayal of public interests. Also for abuses or betrayal of trusts, for inexcusable negligence of duty, for the tyrannical abuse of power, or, as one writer puts it, for “a breach of official duties…

If the President be connected, in any suspicious manner, with any person, and there be grounds to believe he will shelter him, the House of Representatives can impeach him.

Trump committed crimes. It's pretty clear. Although I'm not sure how it plays out politically, I do think you have a responsibility to act when you think - and there's ample evidence to show - that the president has been engaged in criminal conduct.

Impeachment is not a remedy for private wrongs; it's a method of removing someone whose continued presence in office would cause grave danger to the nation.

There have been high crimes and misdemeanors, but they have been committed by the special prosecutor and the Congress, not the president.

According to the weight of opinion, impeachable offenses include, not merely acts that are indictable, but serious misbehavior which may be considered as coming within the category of high crimes and misdemeanors

A President could be impeached only for an error of the heart, and not of the head.

It is the President upon whom the Constitution devolves, as head of the executive department, the duty to see that the laws be faithfully executed; but as he cannot execute them in person, he is allowed to select his agents, and is made responsible for their acts within just limits. So complete is the presumed delegation of authority in the relation of a head of department to a President, that the Supreme Court of the United States have decided that an order made by a head of department is presumed to be made by the President himself.

With his arrogant usurpation of power and refusal to follow well-established wire-tapping laws, I believe this president is not living up to [his] oath. By shunning the oversight of the courts and ignoring the express language of the laws passed by Congress, this president is, in my judgment, defiantly and stubbornly ignoring the Constitution and the laws passed by Congress.

He is violating his oath of office.

I rise to perform a painful but, nevertheless, to me, an imperative duty; a duty which I think ought not longer to be postponed, and which cannot, without criminality on our part, be neglected.… I charge Andrew Johnson, Vice President and acting President of the United States, with the commission of acts which in contemplation of the Constitution, are high crimes and misdemeanors, for which, in my judgment, he ought to be impeached … I do impeach Andrew Johnson, Vice President and acting President of the United States, of high crimes and misdemeanors: I charge him with a usurpation of power and violation of law: In that he has corruptly used the appointing power; In that he has corruptly used the pardoning power; In that he has corruptly used the veto power; In that he has corruptly disposed of public property of the United States; In that he has corruptly interfered in elections…

The failure of a President to provide information to Congress about impeachment inquiries is itself and impeachable offense.

The president may have the raw constitutional power to, say, squelch an investigation or to pardon a close associate. But if he does so not to serve the public interest, but to serve his own, he surely could be removed from office, even if he has not committed a criminal act.

It is now clear that the president violated both his oath of office and the oath he took to tell the truth. In doing so, Bill Clinton not only committed perjury, he violated the public trust.

If President Trump will not remove White House officials who are clearly violating the law, he's not doing his job and this would be yet another grounds for Congress considering impeaching and removing the president.

If the president does something dastardly, the impeachment process is available.

Trump's narcissism deadens any ability he might otherwise have had to carry out the duties of a president in the manner the Constitution requires. He's so self-obsessed, he can only act for himself, not for the nation. It's why he was impeached, and why he should have been removed from office.

Impeachment is not a Constitutional crisis. Impeachment is the cure for a Constitutional crisis.

Unmindful of the solemn duties of his office, and contrary to the sacred obligation, did conduct himself in a manner highly arbitrary, oppressive, and unjust.

The occasion for the exercise of impeachment will arise from acts of great injury to the community.

If he be not impeachable whilst in office, he will spare no efforts or means whatever to get himself reelected.

… high crimes and misdemeanors …

When the President of the United States breaks the law he must be held accountable. That is why I am introducing today a resolution to censure George W. Bush…. At the very heart of our constitution is the assumption that some members of the government will do wrong, and when they do, others in the government must do right…. The President has broken the law. Congress must act…. Our job is not to stand up and cheer when the President breaks the law.