How to Get Rid of a President

To limit executive power, the Founding Fathers created fixed presidential terms of four years, giving voters regular opportunities to remove their leaders. Americans also discovered more dramatic paths for disempowering--or coming razor-close to removing--chief executives: undermining the president's authority, a preemptive strike to derail a presidential candidacy, assassination, impeachment, resignation, and declaration of inability. Although the United States has gone decades without assassination or resignation, the most dramatic forms of presidential removal, getting rid of a president or a potential president is a political reality-just ask not president Hillary Clinton.

How To Get Rid of a President presents the dark side of the nation's history, from the Constitutional Convention through the aftermath of the shocking 2016 election, a stew of election dramas, national tragedies and presidential exits mixed with party intrigue, political betrayal and backroom scheming. It is a briskly paced, darkly humorous voyage through historical events relevant to today's headlines, highlighting the many ways that presidents have been undermined and nearly kicked out, how each method of removal offers opportunities and dangers for the republic and the thorny ethical issues that surround the choice to resist, disobey, or eject a president.

“Getting rid of presidents was never as entertaining as it is in DavidPriess's hands. He barnstorms through more than two centuries of Americanhistory, showing all the ways-from impeachment to death-that presidents haveeither left office prematurely or just barely avoided doing so. Dramatic andinstructive, his narrative has clear resonance for the present day as callsgrow for President Trump's impeachment.-- Max Boot, Washington Post columnist and author of The Corrosion of Conservatism”

"Piquant studies of presidential woe.... A collection of colorful, slightly morbid vignettes that connoisseurs of political picaresque will relish."--Publishers Weekly
"A companionable history of U.S. presidents in crisis... Priess excels at making presidents look tragically human... Anyone distressed or appalled by today's rancorous clashes over presidential prerogative and power may take comfort from learning that the nation has weathered it all before."--Booklist, Starred Review
Getting rid of presidents was never as entertaining as it is in David Priess's hands. He barnstorms through more than two centuries of American history, showing all the ways-from impeachment to death-that presidents have either left office prematurely or just barely avoided doing so. Dramatic and instructive, his narrative has clear resonance for the present day as calls grow for President Trump's impeachment.--MaxBoot, Washington Post columnist and author of The Corrosion of Conservatism
Legal scholars, political scientists, and pundits have dissected various means of undermining and removing leaders, ranging from voting them out of office to impeaching them. Now, with How To Get Rid of a President, David Priess finally racks and stacks all of the methods, fair and foul, in an entertaining and approachable sweep of history.--BenjaminWittes, senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution andeditor in chief of the Lawfare blog
The temptation to impeach a president can run high in a polarized political environment but is fraught with peril as David Priess meticulously demonstrates in this timely book that romps through American history to answer all the questions about removing an unfit president by non-electoral means that you were afraid to ask.--AmandaCarpenter, CNN contributor and author of GaslightingAmerica
With the objective eye of a former intelligence officer and an uncanny instinct for deep truths, David Priess paints a genuinely non-partisan portrait of presidential removals. The stories here are eerily relevant to today's headlines, but also disarmingly fun to read.--MichaelHayden, former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency and author of The Assault on Intelligence

David Priess is author of the The President's Book of Secrets: The Untold Story of Intelligence Briefings to America's Presidents. He has a PhD in Political Science from Duke University and served at the CIA during the presidencies of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush as an intelligence officer, manager, and daily intelligence briefer and at the State Department. Priess writes, speaks and appears often on broadcast media about the presidency and national security.

To limit executive power, the Founding Fathers created fixed presidential terms of four years, giving voters regular opportunities to remove their leaders. Americans also discovered more dramatic paths for disempowering--or coming razor-close to removing--chief executives: undermining the president's authority, a preemptive strike to derail a presidential candidacy, assassination, impeachment, resignation, and declaration of inability. Although the United States has gone decades without assassination or resignation, the most dramatic forms of presidential removal, getting rid of a president or a potential president is a political reality-just ask not president Hillary Clinton. How To Get Rid of a President presents the dark side of the nation's history, from the Constitutional Convention through the aftermath of the shocking 2016 election, a stew of election dramas, national tragedies and presidential exits mixed with party intrigue, political betrayal and backroom scheming. It is a briskly paced, darkly humorous voyage through historical events relevant to today's headlines, highlighting the many ways that presidents have been undermined and nearly kicked out, how each method of removal offers opportunities and dangers for the republic and the thorny ethical issues that surround the choice to resist, disobey, or eject a president.

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