The Question of Impeachment in the House
Ever since Donald Trump entered into the Oval Office in January 2017, many American citizens and Democratic politicians alike have been calling for his impeachment. However, only recently has this option become a possible reality.
Suspicions first rose in April 2017 when Trump insinuated that Ukraine was partially responsible for the accusation of Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential election. Since then, claims escalating in severity from Trump and the Republican party have also targeted the Bidens and Clintons for orchestrating lies against the Trump administration and its campaign ethics. Over the span of two years, this tension culminated into grounds for impeachment when an anonymous whistleblower filed a nine-page complaint to Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson, citing evidence of abuse of power and attempts at a cover-up on Trump’s part.
On September 24, 2019, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi formally initiated the process of impeachment inquiry on Trump. A day later, the White House released the statement of the whistleblower to the American public. According to the whistleblower, on a private phone call, Trump had asked Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate and report on Hunter Biden’s connections to a Ukranian gas company, Burisma. This alleged probing on Hunter Biden, son of 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, has made some to recall the 1972 Watergate Scandal, in which former president Richard M. Nixon resigned before nearly certain impeachment after Republican spies were caught placing hidden tapes throughout the Democratic National Headquarters building.
In response, Trump derided this whistleblower as a “political hack,” claiming that the leak was a partisan report trying to shatter his reputation (ABC News). However, when Joseph Maguire, Director of National Intelligence, testified on order of a subpoena in front of the House Intelligence Committee on September 26, he maintained that the whistleblower was only doing what they thought was best for the country.
A main topic brought up during Maguire’s hearing was his initial decision to withhold the document from Congressional scrutiny. In response, Maguire said that he had done so on account of the executive privilege given to Trump to protect confidential communications. One conclusion became clear — this was the most incriminating report on Trump yet. “I believe everything in this matter is totally unprecedented,” Maguire said.
On October 31st, 2019, the House of Representatives held a vote to approve guidelines for further inquiry, which passed 232-196. The vote was deeply divided between party lines: no Republican Congressman voted for the resolution while all but two Democrats did. Further voting procedures have yet to be taken until the final decision is made in the Republican-majority Senate, which is the only political body with the power to remove a president from office. Currently, prospects look unlikely due to the Republican party’s loyalty to the Trump administration. If the process goes through, then Donald Trump would be the third American president in history to have been impeached since Andrew Johnson in 1868.
by ATHENA LI