Is the President accountable for the action and policies he makes?

Question

I believe that they could be pardoned by the up comming president, like Johnson to Nixon.

Answer 1

I agree with you.. i believe that unless there is time remaining for an impeachment the presedent should ALWAYS be pardoned by the incoming president.. the reason for this is simple...

the president MUST make decisions based on information the public will never know.. those decisions are made for the good of the public...... the oposition WILL use the fact that they KNOW information can't be refealed to make the president look bad......

i do NOT want a president making decisions for the country based on fears that he might be punished for decisions made in the best interests of the country.. i ONLY want them worried about what will help the country.

Answer 2

d**n straight the president is accountable for every thing he/she does...they get voted in to represent US and if they fail they better pay for it.

Answer 3

That depends on how you mean "accountable". If you're talking about public opinion, then of course they are. You bring up a good example of that with Nixon. Did Ford pardoning him suddenly excuse public opinion of his actions? Not in the least. The only thing it did in the public view was damage Ford's credibility.

If you're talking about criminal accountability, the answer is mostly "no". Congress has to first impeach the President to make him vulnerable to removal from office or other retribution. If they do that, then he's open to being held accountable for his actions.

That rarely happens, though. Most members of Congress would prefer not to take that action except in the most dire of situations since it would cripple our system of government to have an Executive afraid of making decisions because he could be prosecuted for them at every turn.

Beyond that, there's little that can be done to a President because while it's not often mentioned, Presidents can pardon themselves. All one has to do is pardon himself before his last day in office (or before he's impeached), and he's off the hook no matter what he's done. There's no Constitutional remedy for that action.

So as a matter of course, Presidents can act with little fear of official reprisal beyond the occasional Congressional censure (and those don't come with any official penalties, they're just an expression of disapproval).

Answer 4

He is in a lot of ways.You cannot blame the president for acting on false intelligent and finance reports supplied to him by the CIA or NSA.If he acts on false information it will come back and reflect on him.