Due to his involvement with Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky, the United States’ House of Representatives has initiated an impeachment investigation of President Donald Trump as of September 24, 2019.

This probe was sparked by an anonymous whistleblower complaint which detailed a possible abuse of Trump’s executive power to coerce Zelensky to investigate into the past of Joe Biden, a candidate in the 2020 race.

According to the United States’ House of Representatives’ archives, “The Constitution gives the House of Representatives the sole power to impeach an official, and it makes the Senate the sole court for impeachment trials.”

As detailed in the Constitution, a president or a federal judge may be removed from his/her position if he/she has committed “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.”

Government teacher Jody Zepp comments, “It will be interesting to see the degree to which our institutions of government venerate and revere the institution of our Constitution.”

In this particular situation, the House has begun to plan when the members will vote on impeachment.

As depicted by the New York Times, once this vote is held, one of two outcomes are possible: either Trump will remain in office after a less than 50% vote, or a majority vote will impeach Trump and relocate the investigation to the Senate.

After a trial is conducted, the decision will result in yet another vote. If two-thirds or more of the members of the Senate vote to condemn the president, Trump will be removed from office.

In response to this investigation, Senior Eli Kuperman says, “The consistent encroachment upon human rights should not be tolerated from anyone, much less the leader of the free world.”

The media’s perception and reporting of this impeachment have been integral in influencing the public’s opinion on the matter.

In opinions sections of a wide variety of newspapers, one can find an assortment of articles on the impeachment proceedings.

For example, Washington Post columnist Robert J. Samuelson reports, “No one has worked more aggressively to trigger impeachment than the president…[he] has descended to new levels of recklessness with his behavior involving Ukraine.”

On the other hand, attorney William Cooper writes in the Baltimore Sun, “If the Democrats overreach and ignore [the process of impeachment], their impeachment effort could boomerang into a net negative. It could even, perhaps, tip the scales toward Trump in 2020.”

Senior Hannah Witkin claims, “News sources have definitely led me to believe that there have been at least a few impeachable offenses committed by the president…The media definitely has a lot of control over public opinion.”

As of October 10th, as reported by National Public Radio, “Fifty-two percent [of Americans] approve of the inquiry, while 43% disapprove.”

Despite what the opinions of the people may be, it will ultimately be the House and the Senate deciding the future of the president’s position.

Zepp believes, “Principles of government such as separation of powers, checks and balances, rule of law, limited government, and larger ideas of power, legitimacy, and authority will all be played out over the next several months.”

Due to the complexity of the United States government, this proceeding most likely will take up the next several months while the investigation continues to be fleshed out in Congress.

As for the results of the probe, Witkin claims, “It’s hard to predict what will happen…The federal government has been so unpredictable the past four years that anything could happen, and it wouldn’t even surprise me anymore.”

Indeed, Kuperman defends her standpoint by declaring, “With the current turmoil in political affairs, prediction of the future is futile.”

No matter what the outcome of the investigation may be, the rift between the Democrats and Republicans will remain present within the federal government.

In fact, Witkin comments, “If Trump were to be impeached, a lot of the country would probably be even more divided.”

Photo Citation

McNaughton, Cathal. Donald Trump holding hand out to cameras. The Atlantic, 13 May 2019, www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/05/trump-wants-chris-wray-buy-his-theory-victimhood/589333/. Accessed 4 Nov. 2019.

Works Cited

Cooper, William. “Don’t Overreach in Quest to Impeach.” The Baltimore Sun, 23 Oct. 2019, www.baltimoresun.com/opinion/op-ed/bs-ed-op-1024-democrats-impeachment-20191023-5jqb5e4xgjdl7k5bh2tqjidhze-story.html. Accessed 1 Dec. 2019.

“Democrats Weigh Vote to Authorize Impeachment Inquiry.” The Associated Press, 15 Oct. 2019, www.apnews.com/0e9227c67e11444481fc6ee4535e9a8e. Accessed 17 Oct. 2019.

McNaughton, Cathal. Donald Trump holding hand out to cameras. The Atlantic, 13 May 2019, www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/05/trump-wants-chris-wray-buy-his-theory-victimhood/589333/. Accessed 4 Nov. 2019.

Montanaro, Domenico. “Poll: Independents Move in Favor of Impeachment Inquiry; GOP Stays Firmly Against.” NPR, 10 Oct. 2019, www.npr.org/2019/10/10/768785510/poll-independents-move-in-favor-of-impeachment-inquiry-gop-stays-firmly-against. Accessed 1 Dec. 2019.

Samuelson, Robert J. “Why We Should Impeach and Remove President Trump.” The Washington Post, 20 Oct. 2019, www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/impeachment-is-the-lesser-evil/2019/10/20/77bd99dc-f1b8-11e9-8693-f487e46784aa_story.html. Accessed 1 Dec. 2019.

Savage, Charlie. “How the Impeachment Process Works.” The New York Times, 24 Sept. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/09/24/us/politics/impeachment-trump-explained.html. Accessed 1 Dec. 2019.