https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/impeachment-process-works/story?id=51202880
Summary: While allegations about Trump's misdemeanors have been surfacing the media for months, the Democrats efforts to impeach Trump have gained attention in recent weeks over suspicion of Trump's phone call with Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Though the Muller report did not clear the president of obstruction of Justice, the Ukraine Call may call for further investigation. Trump portray's the accusation as a "Witch Hunt, and members of Congress have criticized the accusations as well claiming that it violates the president's due process rights and interferes with his ability to conduct foreign policy. The leader of the majority party in the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, announced the formal opening of the impeachment inquiry saying the president betrayed his oath in office and our national security. However, the impeachment process is dictated entirely by the ruling party. The House of Representatives is currently majority democrat, meaning that they will most likely vote to impeach him. This would not change much though since the president has to be acquitted in both the House and the Senate to actually be impeached, and the Senate is majority Republican. If the senate fails to convict, the president will be considered impeached but not removed. If Trump were to be impeached, the vice president would assume office under the 25th amendment. Only two presidents were impeached in the past, Johnson and Clinton, and we will see if this number will change after the upcoming trials.
Questions:
In what ways would the accusations against Trump violate his due process rights?
How are these impeachment trials going to effect the upcoming election?
In what ways does what was said on the phone call categorize as a misdemeanor, felony, treason or bribery?
Quid pro quo is defined as "a favor or advantage granted or expected in return for something." not only does that qualify as bribery, that is also treason in that Trump is overstepping his role and threatening a foreign country fro his own benefit. On the phone call, Trump said to Zelenskiy "There's a lot of talk about Biden's son, that Biden stopped the persecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it ... It sounds horrible to me.”, to which Zelenskiy says “I also want to assure you that we will be very serious about the case and will work on the investigation. As to the economy, there is much potential for our two countries”. The wording in of itself hints at the fact that Trump is commiting treason.
ReplyDelete2. The impeachment trials will affect the upcoming election because they will ignite and excite the right. The right will show up for Trump in the election to vote as they feel very strongly about his innocence and will defend him in the polls. However, the Democrats will be strongly encouraged to show up at the polls and I think there will be one of the highest voter turnouts in history because of the unprecedented waters of this election. If he is impeached by the house, it will be interesting to see how his election is affected, if at all, in a legal sense since no president who has gotten impeached has ever been running for reelection at the same time.
ReplyDelete2. The impeachment trials won't really affect the 2020 election. Trump will most likely be impeached by the House of Representatives, but that impeachment is only symbolic. Many Republicans view the impeachment trial as a witch hunt against Trump and will vote for him in the polls. There isn't real weight on his impeachment as of now because being impeached and convicted by the Senate would need around 20 Republican Senators to flip on their party and vote to impeach Trump.
ReplyDelete2. I think that the impeachment trials will affect the 2020 election, however it is unclear exactly how they will affect it. Trump has officially been impeached by the House of Representatives, but the Senate must still weigh in on the trial. In the meantime, Trump may work to defend himself and attack the Democrats for targeting him. He may even try to find a scandal involving the Democrats to essentially level the playing field and distract people from his own abuse of power. If he fails to win over the public however, these trials could be crucial in determining his fate. If more is discovered about Trump and unlawful actions of his, the public will turn and even the Republicans in the Senate will have to vote against him to appeal to the constituents. This would take a "smoking gun" situation, but it is very possible. This would then affect the election in 2020 as a convicted president should not be in the run for the presidency.
ReplyDelete2. I think the impeachment trials will effect the 2020 election in that they will change the minds of voters who were unsure about trump in the past but still voted for him, and will increase polarization in America. Because Trump has used the impeachment as a way of attacking Democrats, his base will feel more willing to go out and vote for him as well as continue the spread of misinformation about the impeachment and trump's actions. However, people who have been paying attention to the facts of the case may no longer support Trump and Vote for the Democratic candidate.
ReplyDeleteI believe Trump will only be impeached through the House of Representatives and not through the actual Senate trial. With this fact in mind, I believe his position in the upcoming election remains uncompromised as most of his supporters will still stay by his side. Furthermore, unless Trump somehow gets impeached by the Senate - which is highly unlikely- he will remain a strong Republican candidate for the upcoming election and impeachment would only be merely a title for him.
ReplyDelete2. I think the impeachment trials are going to increase partisanship and party polarization. Many Trump supports believe in Trump's innocence and will vote to defend his actions whereas most Democrats will definitely not vote for Trump and will favor a candidate who is the opposite of Trump. Since Trump was just impeached in the house, it will be interesting to see how this would affect reelection since it is unprecedented.
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