Impeachment: The Process, Likelihood, and History
By Ethan Haynes
The Progressive Teen Staff Writer
Throughout the 243 years the United States has been around, there have only been two impeachment inquiries.
2019 marks three.
Johnson, Clinton, and now: Trump.
With only three Presidents in history that have been under this type of scrutiny, the 116th Congress is making its mark on history. But how did we get here? What are the steps to impeachment? And the question on everyone’s mind is: will Donald Trump be impeached?
How did we get here? According to Nancy Pelosi and the New York Times, it is because of Trump’s betrayal of his oath of office, betrayal of our national security, and betrayal of the integrity of our elections.” She said this on September 24, 2019, when she announced that the House of Representatives would launch an official impeachment inquiry into the President. This starts the impeachment process. We are currently in the first stage, which is the inquiry. According to the Washington Post, the following steps take a longer period of time; a formal inquiry must be conducted by the House Intelligence Committee, which is headed by Rep. Adam Schiff. This goes against Pelosi’s previous statement when she said that the Judiciary Committee would lead it. She has now decided that would happen after the inquiry ends. After the Intelligence Committee completes the inquiry, it then goes to the Judiciary Committee where there is a vote on whether or not there are grounds for impeachment. If the Judiciary Committee votes to not draft articles of impeachment, the President remains in office until he is either voted out or the end of his term comes around. But if the Judiciary Committee votes to draft impeachment articles, all articles are sent to the House Floor for debate. Keep in mind the House needs a simple majority in all stages of impeachment.
After the Judiciary Committee sends the articles to the House floor, there is debate over each article. Then, the articles must be voted on: a yes or no to impeachment. If the House votes no on all articles, Trump remains in office, reputation untarnished. If the House votes yes on any article, he is impeached. The Democrats hold a majority in the House of Representatives with 235 members. A simple majority of 218 is needed to impeach. According to NBC, 228 members of the House support an impeachment inquiry into the President: 227 Democrats and one Independent. The probability for impeachment is high; Speaker Pelosi just needs to put it to a vote. If this happens, Donald Trump will be impeached.
If the House votes in favor of impeachment, there would be a Senate trial to determine whether or not the President should be removed from office. It starts with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY); he has to decide whether or not to hold a trial. He is not constitutionally required to; however, he has stated in the past that he would. Then, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Roberts would preside over the trial. Members of the Senate would be the jury, and the President would be the defendant. The President would be asked to appear and address the charges. If he does not show, the assumption would be that he plead not guilty. During the trial, Representatives would argue their reasoning for impeachment. Both sides are allowed to cross-examine witnesses. Unlike the House, the Senate requires a ⅔ majority or 67 votes to remove a President from office. This has never happened. During the vote on Andrew Johnson’s removal, he survived by one vote. During Clinton’s trial, he survived with more votes in his favor with 45–55 on obstruction of justice and 50–50 on perjury. It is unknown how Trump would face-off due to former Senator Jeff Flake’s reply to a report from MSNBC stating that 30 GOP senators would vote against Trump. Flake replied, “That’s not true. There would be at least 35.” This lead to speculation that there is potential for Donald Trump to be removed from office.
But why is the House launching an impeachment inquiry? Why is there talk of impeaching the President? On July 25, 2019, Donald Trump called President Zelensky of Ukraine. Trump asked President Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter. These details can be found in the unclassified White House transcript of the call. He specifically said, “There’s a lot of talk about Biden’s son, that Biden stopped the prosecution 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.” This is a blatant abuse of power; he is using the power of his office to find dirt on a political opponent. The very definition of abuse of power is the improper use of authority by someone who has that authority because he or she holds a public office. If using the Presidency to have a foreign country investigate a political opponent isn’t abuse of power, I don’t know what is. This report was only declassified on September 24, 2019; the same day that the Speaker of the House announced the inquiry. How did the details of this call get to the Speaker before it was declassified? A whistle-blower. A CIA operative who worked in the White House filed a formal complaint about this call, where he specifically detailed in the letter that s/he is concerned that “these actions pose risks to U.S. national elections,” referencing the request the President made.
At the end of the day, it is up to the House of Representatives and the Senate how we proceed. It is up to us as Americans to tell our representatives how they should proceed if they want to win their reelections. We should tell them how their constituents would like them to proceed.. After all, this is a representative democracy; they represent our beliefs. Some, like Frank Bowman, a constitutional law scholar, believe Trump should be impeached and removed from office. This is what many Democratic presidential candidates believe should happen, what 50% of the American public believes should happen. Broken down by party, 84% of Democrats, 46% of independents, and 13% of Republicans believe Trump should be impeached. I believe that he should be impeached and removed from office and should be remembered as a stain on United States history. The only way to clean that stain is to impeach and remove from office.
