Will Trump Be —Wait For It—Impeached?
OPINION
Ukraine phone calls. The meeting at Trump Tower. The Mueller Report. Telling Jeff Sessions, the U.S. Attorney General, to stop the Russia investigation. Asking China and Australia for “dirt” on political opponents, especially regarding Joe Biden. Crafting federal tax laws to benefit himself and his business. These are just some of the acts of the President of the United States of America. But are they impeachable? Let’s see.
On September 24th, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi began an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump. However, this does not necessarily mean that Democrats will impeach him next week or even next month. Instead, this means that leaders in the House of Representatives are continuing to investigate whether or not they have enough evidence to bring an impeachment case against President Trump.
New evidence has mounted in recent days that President Donald J. Trump asked Ukrainian President Voldodmyr Zelensky for dirt on Joe Biden in June of 2019.
Sound familiar? But is what President Donald J. Trump did illegal?
Carrie Cordero, a former U.S. attorney, who served under both Republican and Democratic administrations, recently stated on PBS News Hour that she believes that President Trump’s activities go far beyond “technical violations of specific statutory visions.”
“The problem has to do with whether or not he violates the Constitution and of constitutional principles of whether or not he is fulfilling his oath of office, and whether or not he is abusing his constitutional authorities to conduct foreign affairs.”
Ms. Corredoro and dozens of other legal analysts affirm that Trump’s phone call with President Zelensky raises serious concerns and should be addressed with urgency in the Justice Department and in Congress.
However, defenders of the President argue in defense of the President. Jim Jordan, an Ohio Republican, who serves on the House Judiciary Committee, stated during a tense interview with CNN’S Jake Tapper stated, “So the White House did what they’ve never done before, they released the transcript. But the Democrats say we don’t care we’re going to move towards impeachment anyway….”
PBS News Hour further quotes Mr. Trump as saying, “I need you to do me a favor” to Mr. Zelensky, during a phone call in July. Around the same time, he pulled back military aid to Ukraine, which was meant to confront Russian forces in the region.
In the entire history of our country, we have not had a President of the United States that has openly sought foreign election interference, but Mr. Trump has.
Mr. President, if you know anything about election security or national security, why would you ask for another foreign country to interfere in our elections? In Article 4, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution, it explicitly states that “The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion.”
Will Trump be impeached? The Democratic-majority House of Representatives will most likely impeach him, but it will not get past the Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. McConnell has declared that an impeachment effort will fail “with me as the majority leader,” as reported in Axios.
Unless a coup forms within the Republican party, I highly doubt that the Senate will vote to remove a Republican President, which will result in the continuation of Trump’s reign in the White House.
The President should adhere to the same laws that all other government officials follow, and not abuse executive power against his political opponents. The President of the United States is not above the law, even though he thinks he is.
Chea Steinbach '20 is excited to begin his second year writing for the Banner. He describes himself as a "huge history buff" and also loves to write about...
David Wallace • Oct 10, 2019 at 8:58 am
I’m confused why you say,
PBS News Hour further quotes Mr. Trump as saying, “I need you to do me a favor” to Mr. Zelensky, during a phone call in July. Around the same time, he pulled back military aid to Ukraine, which was meant to confront Russian forces in the region.
In the entire history of our country, we have not had a President of the United States that has openly sought foreign election interference, but Mr. Trump has.
He does not ask for dirt or intelligence on joe Biden, but asks them to reopen the investigation into Burisma. Also, there are multiple times that military aid has been pulled back, including when Joe Biden did it unless they fired a prosecutor who was accused of heavy corruption, to make sure that the United States is best using it’s funds wisely. The funds were witheld for further investigation into what they will specifically benefit the interests of the United States on overseas. According to the Washington Post, the decision was made days before the call to the Ukrainian President, as Trump wanted to make sure the funds were being used correctly. The funds were later released on September 11th, before the Fiscal year ended.
One more thing, Section 4 of the constitution seems to not be talking about an election, as it speaks about protecting states from a invasion or domestic violence from it’s people, it does not seem to be referencing elections. I may be wrong about this one though.