Impeachment looms, but not for the first time

While President Donald Trump is just the fourth in US history to confront a serious threat of impeachment, the prospect has hung over many of his predecessors.

Impeachment has dogged many American presidents, including Richard Nixon, who resigned. New York Times

Peter Baker

Dec 4, 2019 – 11.50am

Email LinkedIn Twitter Facebook

Subscribe to gift this article

Gift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe.

Subscribe now

Already a subscriber?

As President George Bush prepared to order US troops into war to eject Iraqi invaders from Kuwait, he feared it could end his presidency. "If it drags out," he dictated to his diary on December 20, 1990, "not only will I take the blame, but I will probably have impeachment proceedings filed against me".

Eleven days later, in a letter to his children, he quoted a Democratic senator telling him that "if it is drawn out", he should "be prepared for some in Congress to file impeachment papers". On the day the war began, a Democratic congressman did just that, introducing a resolution of impeachment accusing him of "conspiring to commit crimes against the peace."