Presidents Under Fire: The History of Impeachment

Impeachment was meant to be a drastic, last-resort measure, but in the last few decades, it has become a political weapon. We trace the history of impeachment and ask the question: will impeachment still work when we really need it? Examining impeachment with the backdrop of the Trump Presidency and the Mueller Report, Fareed Zakaria traces the history of impeachment and its implications.

The Framers intended impeachment as a remedy of last resort, a defense from the tyranny of the British Crown, designed by its former citizens. But since its first use more than 150 years ago, impeachment has become such a normalized partisan weapon, that it has been seriously threatened against the last four presidents, and during campaigns against candidates before they are even elected. CNN's Fareed Zakaria, host of the global public affairs program Fareed Zakaria GPS, traces the history of why and how Article II, Section IV of the U.S. Constitution has been used. He explores why constitutional historians feel America's democracy may not be strong enough to withstand an exercise of this extraordinary check on presidential powers.