Comments made by attorney and law professor John Yoo on Fox News on the Founding Father's intentions about impeachment received a brutal debunking by two historians -- including one of his colleagues at UC Berkeley.
Appearing with Fox News personality Laura Ingraham, lawyer Yoo -- who is infamous for providing President George W. Bush's administration with legal justifications for the torture of prisoners of war -- claimed that the Founding Fathers would object to the president being impeached in an election year.
According to Yoo, Democrats are getting it all wrong when they say the Constitution compels them to hold impeachment proceedings against Trump just one year before the election.
"I'm glad they're reading the Constitution and citing the framers for once but they've got it exactly backwards," Yoo asserted. "What the framers thought was the American people would judge a president at the time of an election, they would have never wanted an impeachment within a year of an election, it's up to the American people."
According to Cal historian Brain Delay, the lawyer is dead wrong.
"My colleague John Yoo teaches in the Law School and absolutely doesn't understand what the founders would and wouldn't have wanted re: impeachment," he tweeted while attaching a clip of Yoo's appearance.
Oregon State University historian Christopher Nichols joined the pile-on by tweeting, "If only we could know what the founders thought about this & if they would confirm John Yoo's view. Oh wait, we do! July 20, 1787 they discussed this and EXPLICITLY rejected Yoo's view, including some who once held such an opinion reversing course."
With that, it was on as Nichols provided a multitude of links on the country's founders' views on impeachment based upon their own writings -- all of which effectively debunked Yoo's unscholarly opinion.
You can see them below:
@BrianDeLay If only we could know what the founders thought about this & if they would confirm John Yoo's view. Oh… https://t.co/Hr6aIrVxHr— Christopher Nichols (@Christopher Nichols) 1571289816.0
@CMcKNichols "He may be bribed by a greater interest to betray his trust; and no one would say that we ought to exp… https://t.co/8Di4Fb8Fi9— Brian DeLay (@Brian DeLay) 1571290323.0
@BrianDeLay Oh wait, there's more in the historical record, back to 1787 we go...: "Mr. Govr. MORRIS. He can do no… https://t.co/cuLo35b7VQ— Christopher Nichols (@Christopher Nichols) 1571290951.0
@BrianDeLay Overturning Yoo is Madison: "The limitation of the period of his service, was not a sufficient security… https://t.co/RpcvopCsjH— Christopher Nichols (@Christopher Nichols) 1571291188.0
@BrianDeLay Come on John Yoo. I would have hoped you'd be better than this -- why would you event assert this? Try… https://t.co/Kh2nrWUd4F— Christopher Nichols (@Christopher Nichols) 1571291340.0
