Previously published Mar 2. 2021
Trump Impeachment 2019 vs 2021
2019
This article segment about the 2019 Trump Impeachment was previously published in The BISV Quill on October 8, 2019.
Impeachment is a loud word.
There has been talk of impeaching (and removing) President Trump since the day after the 2016 election, or at least, so it seems. Now, in light of the Ukraine controversy, these efforts have been renewed.
As the 2020 election looms, candidates must do their best to gain their opponents’ upper hand. President Trump allegedly pressured Ukrainian President Zelensky to investigate rival Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden by withholding the $400 million promised in military aid. The call-in that transpired was moved from a more accessible system where the president’s calls are usually stored to a restricted system for important government secrets. Soon, it was revealed that other calls between foreign leaders and the President had also been restricted, which is not normal behavior.
According to the chair of the Federal Elections Commission, “it is illegal for any person to solicit, accept, or receive anything of value from a foreign national in connection with a U.S. election.” But is this enough to allow for impeachment and subsequent removal of a president?
A President can be impeached for any High Crimes and Misdemeanors. From a purely legal standpoint, if there was evidence that the call was illegal, President Trump could be removed from office. However, the White House has refused to cooperate with the congressional inquiry, stating that it is unconstitutional. Firstly, the House of Representatives must first hold a vote to begin impeachment proceedings. But even if this were to happen, it is unclear if the White House would cooperate.
The issue here lies with partisanship. The move to impeach President Trump has become associated with Democrats – it seems as though the impeachment would be happening only because of party interests. This controversy is merely an excuse to renew a long-standing effort. Something legitimately threatening the integrity of the U.S. election is being warped by political parties to serve their purposes rather than Americans’ best interests.
2021
President Donald Trump is getting impeached for the second time of his presidency. This is historical because no president to date has been impeached more than once. This impeachment follows a domestic terrorist attack on the US Capitol motivated by the incendiary comments of the president and some of his followers.
The President stands accused of incitement of insurrection, citing both his phone call with the Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and the Capitol’s storming by his supporters. This movement to impeach will continue if Vice President Pence does not consult the Cabinet about invoking the 25th Amendment, which allows the vice president to consult the Cabinet if the president is either mentally or physically unable to continue executing the office of the President of the United States.
Trump may be the first president to get kicked out of Office with ten Republican senators, one of them being the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, seemingly on the side of the Senate Democrats. As for the people participating in the Capitol’s domestic terror attack, the FBI has arrested and charged Richard Bennett, the man on Pelosi’s chair, and Jake Angeli, self-proclaimed shamanistic warrior. Other arrests include Leonard Guthrie, Mark Leffingwell, Eric Michel, Derrick Evans, Adam Johnson, and Aaron Mostofsky. The President’s attempt to overthrow the foundations of American Democracy has resulted in an ultimatum by Nancy Pelosi and consequences for the people involved.
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