December 20, 2019
The only impeachment inquiry in American history to be bipartisan in any way, shape, or form was that into Richard Nixon during the first half of 1974. The Watergate scandal that set the whole affair in motion was two years old at the time. The committee began investigating in early February of 1974; it approved three articles of impeachment at the end of July. The investigation therefore lasted just under eight months, in stark contrast with the three months of the present inquiry. Then again, there was no formal impeachment inquiry into President Andrew Johnson whatsoever.
Republicans stonewalled the inquiry at first. But by the time the committee adopted its articles of impeachment and sent them to the full House for approval, 6 out of 17 Republican committee members had joined ranks with the Democrats. Shortly thereafter, Nixon was ordered by the Supreme Court to hand over tapes relating to the Watergate scandal; his remaining Republican support in Congress evaporated overnight.
The Nixon impeachment process was never finished, but it remains arguably the shining example of how American impeachment is supposed to work. A bipartisan majority emerged over time, and it became overwhelming once incontrovertible evidence became public. That sequence of events has not played out here, for reasons that scholars will debate decades hence.
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