Possible Impeachment of President Trump
November 4, 2019
On September24th, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi filed a formal impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump amid abuse of power allegations. Recently, a whistleblower filed a formal complaint claiming that President Trump pressured Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to investigate Joe Biden by withholding military aide. That itself can be considered an impeachable offense, but President Trump has only dug himself deeper when he said on NBC live that China and Ukraine should both start an investigation into Joe Biden and his son.
The impeachment inquiry is already history in the making, but it would be historic if President Trump were to be impeached and removed from office, as the only other two presidents to be impeached, BillClinton and Richard Nixon, were not removed from office.
In the official report, published in USA Today, the whistleblower writes, “In the course of my official duties, I have received information from multiple U.S. Government officials that the President of the United States is using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election.” After this, it is stated that the President’s lawyer Rudolph Giuliani is a central figure in this, and that Attorney General Barr also seems to be involved.
The whistleblower also writes that while he was not an eye-witness, “I found my colleagues’ accounts of these events to be credible because, in almost all cases, multiple officials recounted fact patterns that were consistent with one another. In addition, a variety of information consistent with these private accounts have been reported publicly.”
All of this led the whistleblower to file a formal complaint on the grounds that this behavior “constitutes a serious a flagrant problem, abuse, or violation of law or Executive Order that does not include differences of opinions concerning public policy matters consistent with the definition of urgent concern in 50 U.S.C. §3033(k)(5)(G).”
Also, on October 6th, a second whistleblower has come forward, but their statement has not been released before this story went into print.
There are three different categories that can constitute an impeachable offence. An act that violates a statue, constitutional provision, or oath and is related to the officer’s duties; a simple neglect of duty committed for a corrupt purpose; and a neglect or disregard of duty that is so gross or flagrant that the officer’s willful and corrupt intent may be inferred. This is why the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has decided to file an impeachment inquiry.
Under the Impeachment Articles, the President, Vice President, and “civil Officers of the United Sates” may be impeached and removed from the office if convicted of “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.” In order to be impeached, they first have to be initiated by the House of Representatives with the passage of a resolution listing the charges or “Articles of Impeachment” against the official being impeached, which has already happened. Then if it is passed by the House, the Articles of Impeachment are considered by the Senate in a trial. Then, if the Senate votes for conviction with a 2/3 supermajority vote, the Senate will then vote to remove the official from office.
According to ABC News FiveThirtyEight page, as of October 23rd49.1% of Americans polled support the impeachment of President Trump and 43.5% do not. The percentage of polled Americans who support the impeachment has gone up by nearly ten percent in the last month, on September 23rd40% to the 49.1% on October 23rd. The percentage of Americans polled who do not support impeachment has gone down by nearly eight percent, from 51.1% on September 23rdto 43.5% on October 23rd.
Andrew Hage, a CAC student reporter, polled 59 CAC students to see if they support President Trump’s impeachment. 31 students, or 52.5%, believe that President Trump should be impeached while 28 students, or 47.5%, disagree.
The support for the impeachment of President Donald Trump will continue to fluctuate as we await the resolution of this historical development. All we can do is wait and see.