As the impeachment trials of President Trump progress, more people are starting to question, what really is impeachment and what would it mean for the country moving forward? First off, impeachment does not mean removal from office. For Trump to be fully removed from The White House, he would have to be convicted from the upper chamber of Congress, the Senate, after a trial. Right now the president is facing a trial in the Senate on two articles of impeachment that were approved by the House, abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
Impeachment begins first when a member of the House of Representatives introduces an impeachment resolution. From there, the Speaker of the House directs the House Judiciary Committee or a special committee to hold a hearing. A simple majority of the House Judiciary committee approves the resolution. The full House of Representatives, also needing a simple majority, votes to approve articles of impeachment. If approved, the president then is officially impeached, but the Senate ultimately decide if he or she will be removed from office. In the trial, the Senate tries the president by the Chief Justice of the United States. To remove the president from office, two-thirds of the Senate must vote yes to the impeachment. In the history of the United States, a president has never been removed from office however, two presidents, Bill Clinton and Andrew Jackson, have been impeached by the House.
To being the trial against President Trump, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi officially started the impeachment inquiry on Sept. 24. His impeachment relies on the question of if he sought help from Ukraine to increase his chances of re-election in the 2020 presidential election. Charges started with the argument that Trump had the Ukrainian government investigate in one of his main democratic competitors, Joe Biden and his son, Hunter. Now there are more questions if President Trump bribed the Ukrainian President to proceed with these investigations. Some are saying that Trump’s ‘Access Hollywood Tape’ compares to that in Nikon’s impeachment trial. President Trump argues that there was nothing unconstitutional about the phone call and rather this impeachment process is a personal attack against him. If the Senate were to pass the impeachment trials, this would lead to Trump’s removal from office. If it does not pass, he is still impeached by the House however still holds his position in office.
One of the biggest gray areas in this trial lies within the Constitution, which lists “treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors” as justification for proceedings. However, it is ultimately up to the Senate on what they define as “high crimes and misdemeanors.” This becomes tricky when the Senate has 53 Republican seats, 45 Democratic seats and 2 Independent seats. As this trial comes to an end with a 16 hours question-and-answer from the Senate to the House, there is supposed to be a final vote on Friday, January 31. So what does this mean going forward? As we watch this somewhat catfight continue, the most important thing we can do is act in the upcoming 2020 presidential and primary elections to have our voices heard and hopefully change the current negative environment of the government.