Pete Stark: “The President has admitted that he had an extramarital affair and then lied about it. No one disputes that fact. The…”

“The President has admitted that he had an extramarital affair and then lied about it. No one disputes that fact. The President's conduct, while reprehensible, was a betrayal of his vows to his wife but not his oath of office. His actions were personal in nature. If his lies to cover up his conduct amount to perjury, he can and should be held accountable through our judicial system. Our founding fathers had something quite different in mind when they drafted the Constitutional language on impeachment, a political remedy for tyrannical acts. The Federalist papers shed some light on that. George Mason said that the phrase 'high crimes and misdemeanors' refer to presidential actions that are great and dangerous offenses or attempts to subvert the government. Alexander Hamilton, in the Federalist paper 65, wrote that impeachable offenses relate chiefly to injustices done immediately to society. Ben Franklin spoke of impeachment as an alternative to assassination.”