Politics

Radio Atlantic: To Impeach or Not to Impeach?

Yoni Appelbaum and Ezra Klein debate whether Democrats should open an impeachment inquiry into President Trump.

By Kevin Townsend
Saved Stories

Subscribe to Radio Atlantic: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Play

Atlantic Ideas Editor Yoni Appelbaum and Vox Editor at Large Ezra Klein have both deeply researched the question of impeachment—and both have come to a different conclusion.

Appelbaum argued in The Atlantic’s March cover story that the House of Representatives “must immediately open a formal impeachment inquiry into President Trump, and bring the debate out of the court of public opinion and into Congress, where it belongs.”

Klein argues that “impeachment will be a partisan war over the president’s removal, and anyone who thinks otherwise is fooling themselves. The fact-finding potential within the process will be overwhelmed by the question of whether impeachment is merited.”

With that question becoming pressing in the wake of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report, Appelbaum and Klein sit down with Edward-Isaac Dovere to discuss the history of impeachment and make their case: Should Congress move ahead with impeachment?

Listen for:

  • Why Andrew Johnson—not Richard Nixon—is actually the better impeachment example to use when discussing Donald Trump

  • What changed (and what didn’t) after the Mueller report

  • Where Klein and Appelbaum actually agree on impeachment

Voices: