Does impeachment nullify first term, allowing for two more terms? Fact Check
Rumours spreading online purport that a US President can run for office two more times if they are impeached but not removed during their first term in office, since their first term effectively becomes nullified.
FALSE
Rumours like the ones below are spreading online.
The U.S. Constitution states that if a president is impeached by the House but not convicted by the Senate, that person’s first term is nullified and they are eligible to run for office two more times.
These Democrats don’t realize that if they impeach Trump and the Senate doesn’t confirm it then it nullifies Trump’s first term and he gets to run two more times. Read the Constitution, people.
According to the US constitution, no person can be elected to the position of President of the United States more than twice. This has been the case since Franklin D. Roosevelt won four presidential elections in 1932, 1936, 1940 and 1944 (he would only serve a handful of months of his final term before passing away and being succeeded by his vice president Harry Truman.)
Despite the claim that being impeached but not removed from office can in effect nullify your first term and qualify you for two more terms in office, there is nothing in the US Constitution regarding such an event.
Please note that impeachment – as voted on by the US House of Representatives – is not synonymous with conviction and/or removal – as voted on by the Senate.
It is the 22nd Amendment to the US Constitution that ratified term limits. There is nothing in this text that allows for such a loophole, nor are there any popular interpretations of this amendment that support such a loophole. Simply put, there is absolutely no basis for this rumour.
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Similar rumours stating the flip side of this coin claim that impeachment can prevent a second term in office, and these are again false. An impeached president can seek reelection for a second term. It has been widely accepted and reported that impeachment alone does not prevent a president from seeking a second term in office, as demonstrated in 2019 during the Trump impeachment enquiries.
A further hypothetical question proves a little more controversial, and that is whether a president can seek re-election if he is both impeached and removed from office. No such event has ever occurred in history, and is could depend on how the Senate deals with the removal of the president and whether they vote to disqualify him (or her) from holding office in the future.
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