To Go, Or Not To Go?
October 30, 2019
On September 24, The Speaker of the House of Representatives in the United States, Nancy Pelosi, on behalf of the Democrats, announced an impeachment inquiry against the 45th President of the USA, Donald Trump. Donald Trump has been under suspicion for the last few months of abusing his political power to ask Ukraine to investigate the former Vice president Joe Biden, one of Trump’s political rivals. If this suspicion is true, it might be a violation of the campaign finance law that prohibits foreign interference in the US elections.
Democrats claim that his act undermines the Election system of the US, therefore, Trump should be forced to give up his Presidency through impeachment. According to the constitution, “officials who commit “treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors.” can be impeached. Removal requires the passing of an impeachment accusation in the House and Representatives as well as a ⅔ majority votes in the Senate which will be reuired to run an impeachment trial. Republicans currently control the Senate by having 53 of the 100 seats, so even though all the Democrats in the House vote for impeachment, Trump may not be removed from the Presidency if all the Republicans stand on Trump’s side. In the past, Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton were acquitted in Senate trials. Richard Nixon resigned the presidency in 1974 during the impeachment proceedings since he found out that he would not survive in the Senate trial.
Trump’s version of the story is that although he confirmed that he ordered his staff to freeze nearly $400 million in military aid to Ukraine in the lead up to a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, it is not true that he asked Ukraine to Investigate Joe Biden. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko also denies the accusation that Trump had pressured Ukraine to take Trump’s side in the election.
The current issue being debated is whether or not Trump engaged in what is called a “quid pro quo” (a latin phrase which basically means “I’ll do something for you, only if you do something for me”). Democrats believe that Trump was leveraging the military aid to force the Ukraine to investigate the Bidens, and therefore interfere in the US election process.
Over the past month, the public has become more and more supportive of Impeachment. In fact, the survey in Fox News showed an approximately 10% increase in people who agree with Trump’s impeachment in the past few months.
This is obviously on on-going story with updates every day, and, at some times, every hour. Democrats continue to subpoena and interview various witnesses to find out more information, while Republicans are focusing on discrediting those witness and the impeachment process itself.
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