We speak with President Thomas Jefferson about the impeachments that took place during his presidency. There were two impeachments of federal judges, Thomas Pickering and Samuel Chase. In the out-of-character segment, Jenkinson shares the story of Aaron Burr, who had recently killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel, presiding over the trial of Chase.
What Would Jefferson Do?
“I often went to house parties during this period and engaged in the convivialities of youth.”
Tune in to your local public radio or join the 1776 Club to hear this episode of What Would Thomas Jefferson Do?
My pessimism and fear come from the fact that nobody in the Republican Party condemned President Trump’s actions. No Republican said that Mr. Trump’s attempt to pressure Ukraine into announcing an investigation of his chief political rival in the 2020 election was wrong, a violation of public trust, an offense against fair play, and an assault on our system of elections.
We are joined this week by one of our favorite guests, Professor Joseph Ellis. Ellis is a Pulitzer Prize winning author and American historian whose work focuses primarily on the times of the American founders. Highly recommended are his books, American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson, which won a National Book Award and Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation which won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for History. This week on the Thomas Jefferson Hour, Professor Ellis offers his unique perspective on the volatile times we are living through.
What do you do when Republicans refuse to take seriously what they would find absolutely appalling and outrageous, criminal and treasonous, disgusting and constitution-threatening if it were done by a liberal Democrat? We all know that if the situation were reversed and Barack Obama had reached out to Pakistan to demand that they pretend to investigate Jeb Bush or Donald Trump that the Republicans would be having what we used to call a conniption fit, and we’d be in a constitutional crisis at least as severe as this one.
Here’s why I love what I get to do. The national impeachment crisis over the presidential behavior of Donald Trump has turned us all back to our history books. I have, but have not yet read, several of the recently published books on impeachment, one with chapters by Peter Baker of the New York Times and Jon Meacham, America’s latest favorite presidential historian.