I have spent the past several weeks watching the impeachment trial of Donald J. Trump. Actually, I’ve watched him through many moments since his inauguration that I thought — or at least wondered — if they weren’t impeachable in real time.

For instance, the people around him who couldn’t pass security clearance until he intervened and ordered them cleared; or, perhaps the White House meeting he took with one foreign leader where he provided information from an ally.

There also were the comments from his campaign rallies.

My personal “favorite” was the one that started with “Russia, if you’re listening. . .”

I know everyone seems to want to compare this impeachment process with the one in the 1970s that led to Richard Nixon’s resignation, but I think the issues then were of quite a different level.

Further, there hadn’t been so many times when his ability to act presidential was put into question.

When it came to the second impeachment process in our generation in 1999, people didn’t begin to question Bill Clinton’s fitness for office before he became entangled with the young intern, Monica Lewinsky. That’s when I knew the fabric of America was really taking a different turn. The division in the country became whether it was appropriate to weigh the president’s personal life against his behavior in the White House.

The ultimate decision came down to a different matter — could the president be trusted to be truthful after he lied to investigators about his affair?

He was impeached by the House of Representatives and the matter was sent to the Senate for trial, where the attempt to remove him from office failed.

The place where Clinton’s impeachment and Trump’s impeachment collide is in the matter of character.

The American public and Trump’s party affiliates seemed willing to overlook so much more — until it came to interference with the election process and whether that amounted to an abuse of power. Then, there was the matter of obstruction of Congress.

I don’t see that there is much difference between obstruction of Congress and obstruction of justice. However, that seems to be a big issue in these final days of the first phase of the Senate trial for Trump’s impeachment. The only difference as I see it is whether he was obstructing a criminal investigation that would lead to the traditional trial as most of us know from our days of watching “Law & Order” reruns and public trials that were played out in real time on television.

I do see major differences when it comes to the way security is handled at the Capitol building.

I don’t recall how it was during the Nixon proceedings; and, of course I wasn’t around for the first impeachment, of Andrew Johnson in the late 1800s. But during the Clinton impeachment hearings in 1999, things were much looser. That was before 9-11, which changed a lot of the security practices.

I was in Washington, D.C., during one week of that trial and was enthralled by the scope of media presence. I was in D.C. to attend a conference on children’s mental health. Also, I was a freelance writer at the time and was envious of the hundreds, if not thousands, of reporters who converged on the Capitol building to vie for a spot close to the action. I remember there was some closed-circuit coverage of the event to accommodate a massive overflow crowd beyond the Senate chambers.

As reporters and camera crews entered the Capitol building to the left of the entry off of the Mall that ran from the Capitol building to the Washington monument, there was a huge mound of coats, backpacks and anything else they needed to “stash” away while roaming the halls freely looking for a seat or hoping to catch a Senator or two to talk to.

One thing I found quite amusing was a cameraman had made his way up onto a small balcony, or ledge, half way up the wall in the Senate chambers to an improvised second-floor seat. He had his equipment set up on a tripod, and there was barely room for him to be there with it.

That would never happen today, I thought, as I watched today’s network television and cable coverage of events from their daily beginnings, with people walking through metal detectors. Media crews were much more restricted in their access to the proceedings in these recent weeks.

There appeared to be much more freedom during the initial House investigation before the articles of impeachment were handed down, before the case was handed off to the Senate. In the House, people came and went freely, with many Representatives going in and out as well to vote on other issues, take breaks, or stop for a moment to chat with a reporter or two in hopes of making their pitch to the public at large.

The Senate trial takes on a more serious tone.

I can’t imagine having to sit silently for hours, let alone giving up access to a cell phone in this very busy environment. I thought the first announcement meant there wouldn’t be anything to take notes with but have noticed that several senators do have notebooks and pencils or pens.

It’s been interesting to see history being made in real time, knowing the trial could determine whether Trump’s time in office is shortened or he continues on the campaign trail hoping for a second term.