With President’s Day around the corner, it’s hard to ignore the political elephant in the room, or rather, in Washington D.C.—that is Donald J. Trump’s impeachment trial. -- Declan Mcmahon, 7th grade
With President’s Day around the corner, it’s hard to ignore the political elephant in the room, or rather, in Washington D.C.—that is Donald J. Trump’s impeachment trial. This entire impeachment affair has been a bumpy ride, beginning with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s initial impeachment inquiry to today, with the final Senate vote upon us. Read on for facts and opinions from people all over the country and here at OSA, and how they feel about the proceedings.
Let’s start with the basics. What does impeachment mean? It’s a very loaded term these days, and you shouldn’t blame yourself for feeling confused. Before the impeachment trial, it was common for people affiliated with left-wing politics to refer to “impeaching Trump,” and the word “impeach” in that phrase was interchangeable with “remove [Trump] from office.” This confused a lot of people who are not familiar with the impeachment process outside of the current situation with President Trump. Many people didn’t understand how, if he had been impeached, and he was still in office.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines impeach as “to charge with a crime or misdemeanor, specifically to charge a public official before a competent tribunal with misconduct in office.” Now, the important word in that sentence is charge. Not convict. So it essentially means to start a criminal trial against a public official who committed misconduct in office. That means they had to charge Trump with crimes he committed office, not including anything before he was inaugurated as the 45th president of the United States.
Now the impeachment trial is in full swing, almost over, in fact. These are the articles of impeachment Donald Trump is being tried for: Obstruction of Congress and Abuse of Power. The trial is being conducted like any other criminal trial, with the Senate as the jury. One of the largely different aspects of this trial is that Mitch McConnell, the Senate Majority Leader, has refused to allow witnesses to testify. Nothing can be certain, but as he is a Republican, many suspect he is withholding that action to prevent Trump's removal from office. It is worth noting that, at the time this is published, the final Senate vote is scheduled for the afternoon of Wednesday, February 5th, 2020. You can read the original documents, plus explanations on certain fine print in the New York Times: Read the Articles of Impeachment Against President Trump.
An impeachment inquiry against the president of the United States is a very rare thing. The writers at Business Insider put it succinctly, saying, “Only three US presidents have faced impeachment before [Trump] - Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998 were both impeached, while Richard Nixon resigned before he could be impeached in 1974.” (Here are all the US presidents who have been impeached).
Over at the Telegraph, we conducted an anonymous survey to see how people feel about the Trump administration. There were some interesting opinions on the subject of Trump’s actual removal.
Let’s start with the basics. What does impeachment mean? It’s a very loaded term these days, and you shouldn’t blame yourself for feeling confused. Before the impeachment trial, it was common for people affiliated with left-wing politics to refer to “impeaching Trump,” and the word “impeach” in that phrase was interchangeable with “remove [Trump] from office.” This confused a lot of people who are not familiar with the impeachment process outside of the current situation with President Trump. Many people didn’t understand how, if he had been impeached, and he was still in office.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines impeach as “to charge with a crime or misdemeanor, specifically to charge a public official before a competent tribunal with misconduct in office.” Now, the important word in that sentence is charge. Not convict. So it essentially means to start a criminal trial against a public official who committed misconduct in office. That means they had to charge Trump with crimes he committed office, not including anything before he was inaugurated as the 45th president of the United States.
Now the impeachment trial is in full swing, almost over, in fact. These are the articles of impeachment Donald Trump is being tried for: Obstruction of Congress and Abuse of Power. The trial is being conducted like any other criminal trial, with the Senate as the jury. One of the largely different aspects of this trial is that Mitch McConnell, the Senate Majority Leader, has refused to allow witnesses to testify. Nothing can be certain, but as he is a Republican, many suspect he is withholding that action to prevent Trump's removal from office. It is worth noting that, at the time this is published, the final Senate vote is scheduled for the afternoon of Wednesday, February 5th, 2020. You can read the original documents, plus explanations on certain fine print in the New York Times: Read the Articles of Impeachment Against President Trump.
An impeachment inquiry against the president of the United States is a very rare thing. The writers at Business Insider put it succinctly, saying, “Only three US presidents have faced impeachment before [Trump] - Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998 were both impeached, while Richard Nixon resigned before he could be impeached in 1974.” (Here are all the US presidents who have been impeached).
Over at the Telegraph, we conducted an anonymous survey to see how people feel about the Trump administration. There were some interesting opinions on the subject of Trump’s actual removal.
“I do not support Trump whatsoever but I do think that Mike Pence is worse than him so if he leaves office Pence would become president and he has the same terrible views as Trump but he is smarter and has more experience working in office so if I had to choose I'd rather have Trump as president even though ideally I'd want neither,” which is a very advanced, and future-mindset thing to say.
We also had opinions such as this, shared by many:
“It won't make a difference, all this is doing is getting him in the media. The only thing that these trials have done is waste time, and secure Trump's re-election.” We had strongly worded, feisty responses for the question “Do you think Trump should be removed from office,” like “[Yes, he should be,] and jailed,” or, “HE SHOULD HAVE NEVER BEEN PUT IN OFFICE! But, I want him removed.” From the side that voted “No,” or who indicated that they were Republicans/conservatives, we have no elaborate written responses to that question, unfortunately.
[EDIT] Trump was not removed from office. Mitt Romney was the only Republican that voted to remove him on one of the articles of impeachment.
We also had opinions such as this, shared by many:
“It won't make a difference, all this is doing is getting him in the media. The only thing that these trials have done is waste time, and secure Trump's re-election.” We had strongly worded, feisty responses for the question “Do you think Trump should be removed from office,” like “[Yes, he should be,] and jailed,” or, “HE SHOULD HAVE NEVER BEEN PUT IN OFFICE! But, I want him removed.” From the side that voted “No,” or who indicated that they were Republicans/conservatives, we have no elaborate written responses to that question, unfortunately.
[EDIT] Trump was not removed from office. Mitt Romney was the only Republican that voted to remove him on one of the articles of impeachment.
