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Former Attorney General Rob McKenna joined 成人X站 Radio鈥檚 Dave Ross to discuss impeachment, a complex issue that鈥檚 been floating around Donald Trump ever since he became president.

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“Impeachment is like an indictment,” McKenna said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a second stage in that process in which there鈥檚 a trial conducted by the Senate and then only if you鈥檙e convicted are you removed from office.”

Basically, being impeached doesn’t necessarily lead to being expelled from your political post. What triggers impeachment is not simply the fact that something unlawful occurred, McKenna explained.

鈥淚t鈥檚 also whether the offense was serious enough to warrant removal. And you only get to take one vote. Your vote is on whether you think the person is guilty, and whether you believe the fact they鈥檙e guilty warrants their removal from office,鈥� he said.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a high bar. And not only because of that two-step analysis, but because you need two-thirds of the U.S. Senate voting to convict in order to remove from office, whereas you need just a majority of the House of Representatives to adopt articles of impeachment.鈥�

In reality, impeachment is a political process, McKenna said.

鈥淚t represents a fundamental check on the power of another branch. It鈥檚 a check on the power of the judiciary because we have these lifetime appointments to the federal court and yet we know sometimes someone really needs to leave the bench,鈥� he said.

鈥淭hen you have the check that this represents on the power of the president. You need to be able to remove a president who is guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors, although that鈥檚 not really defined anywhere. And then third, senators themselves can be impeached.鈥�

Two U.S. presidents have been impeached: Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton.

The process doesn鈥檛 pertain only to presidents.

鈥淚t applies to vice presidents, cabinet secretaries, supreme court justices, federal judges, and this broad category of civil officers,鈥� McKenna said.

鈥淎ll of the examples historically of people who have actually been removed from office are examples involving judges. Lots of people have been impeached throughout history, but have not been convicted and have therefore not been removed from office.鈥�

The first person ever to be impeached and removed from office was . He was convicted of drunkenness and 鈥渦nlawful rulings鈥� in 1803.

鈥淭here were three federal judges impeached and convicted and then removed from office back in the 1980s. But before that, the last one who was actually impeached and removed from office was in 1936 — a judge from the Southern District of Florida,鈥� McKenna said. 鈥淪o I imagine they鈥檇 have to dust off a lot of old books in order to get ready to conduct one of these trials.鈥�