Censure is a condemnation while impeachment involves a trial, starting with the House adopting "articles of impeachment" and the Senate holding the trial. In the case of the impeachment of a President, the Chief Justice of the United States presides over the trial.
"While many of our grounds for censure may support President Trump's Impeachment," said Jules Bernstein, a veteran Washington, D.C. labor lawyer who helped start the petition drive, "at a minimum they warrant his immediate censure by both Houses of Congress."
The petition "is a simple and easy way for people to be heard and fight back," explained Bernstein. "It would serve to combat Trump's normalization, let Congress know how people feel, and remind the press and public of all the terrible things he's done."
Throughout American history, Congress has censured its own members as well as the President at least 40 times. In 1834, for example, the Senate censured President Andrew Jackson for removing government deposits from the Bank of the United States and refusing to give them to Congress. In 1954, the Senate censured Senator Joseph McCarthy (R-Wisc) for, among other things, bringing the Senate into "dishonor and disrepute."
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