Impeachment Free Response
Impeachment is defined as calling into question the integrity or validity of someone or something.
Recently a congressional inquiry for the impeachment of President Donald Trump has begun. Speaker Nancy Pelosi initiated the inquiry after information was released regarding national security. In short, Donald Trump allegedly abused his power to advance his personal interests. Trump asked Ukraine to initiate investigations into his lead opponent in the 2020 Presidential Election, Joe Biden and his son, Hunter. This tops off continued allegations that Ukraine and Russia interfered with the 2016 election so that Trump would win.
Do you support the impeachment of President Donald Trump or not? Why? Based on the definition of impeachment, do you think that the House of Representatives is correct to impeach? Give specific reasons.
Gretchen Barstad • Oct 24, 2019 at 6:56 pm
As most of us may know, Donald Trump has done multiple things to lead some people to think that he should be impeached while other people think all these things mean nothing and should be forgotten. Impeachment is when the House of Representatives believe there are enough charges against a person of government which gives them a possibility to be convicted of the charges or the official being removed from office. Instances like bribery, crimes or treason of an sort could eventually have a president impeached. In order to impeach someone, majority has to be on board with it in the House of Representatives and then it goes to the Senate who gets the final decision 2/3 of the votes and eventually decide whether or not he/she should be removed.
I believe Trump should be impeached as he has had several offenses that don’t agree with our presidential system. Trump called Ukraine’s leader to try to get information about former US Vice-President Joe Biden and his son. Both Joe Biden and his son are running for president therefore, Trump wanted to find out some information about them. Before all of this happened, Trump aided Ukraine’s military and I think he was trying to butter them up so that the Ukraine leader did what he asked. Trump also wants more votes for the next US election which is illegal to try to ask foreign entities for support in the election. Joe Biden’s son works for a Ukrainian company therefore, much was known abut him. Trump keeps saying all of this is nothing but is it? I don’t think any of this should be able to happen in our government!
It was okay for Trump to have called Volodymyr Zelensky to congratulate him on his victory but after that he should’ve ended the call. Reporters may only be telling certain details they want; imagine some of the details they could be leaving out in order to protect Trump. There could have been other occasions this could have happened and maybe the reporters didn’t emphasize what was actually happening. I don’t want a president that is trying to cheat and win the election 24/7, I want someone that is looking at the important things in life and that will protect me in all circumstances.
The House of Representatives are correct and should impeach as he has done not one but multiple offenses that don’t agree with our presidential system. Trump broke the law by trying to get other foreign countries to support him in the running for an election. All Democrats believe Trump should be impeached and I truly agree with them. If Trump wins the next election, it will only allow us, Democrats, to have more opportunities to try to impeach him. Therefore, I say we should impeach him now rather then holding it out longer then necessary.
Camille Valdez • Oct 23, 2019 at 11:17 pm
I support the impeachment of President Trump. On January 20, 2017 Donald Trump swore to lead this country to the best of his ability. Almost three years later, he has done everything but that. Impeachment is defined as “the action of calling into question the integrity or validity of something”.
Based on this definition, I support the impeachment of President Trump. Donald Trump truly only cares about himself. He used Ukraine to illegally “get dirt” on his biggest opponent in the 2020 election, Joe Biden. He abuses his power and risks his job just to make sure everyone is below him. He maintains that he did nothing wrong, but evidence proves otherwise. His integrity has already been low, but this is serious. The House of Representatives is correct to impeach and I hope they put him on trial for the good of the people.
Emma Birkle • Oct 23, 2019 at 11:00 pm
What is Impeachment? Impeachment is defined as calling into question the integrity or validity of someone or something. In order to form a more stable government, the framers of the Constitutional convention in 1787 decided to separate powers of government into executive, legislative, and judicial branches. The framers of the convention decided to put in place checks and balances to prevent any of the branches from becoming too powerful. One of the checks that have been provided to the legislative branch of government includes how Congress has the power to charge the officials of the executive and judicial branches with wrongdoing. Congress also has the power to remove an official from office through a process that involves impeachment. If the official has committed a violation, the Senate is able to try him/her and debate on whether or not the person should be removed from office. In order to be impeached, The House of Representatives vote with a simple majority of over 50 percent, and the Senate must vote with a two-thirds majority to completely remove an official from office.
A current issue has recently emerged to the members of Congress as well as towards the United States public. On August 12th, 2019, a CIA officer who works in the White House filed a anonymous complaint. This whistleblower identified a phone call between President Trump and the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky on July 25th, 2019. During the conversation between the two men, President Trump asked President Zelensky for an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, due to their lucrative business deals with a Ukrainian gas company that had been under investigation for corruption years before. The CIA officer believed Trump abused his powers as the president for his own political gain and that this abuse posed a threat to national security. Although Congress was unaware of the situation until September, Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, announced an impeachment inquiry responding to the complaint of the whistleblower. The White House has confirmed that the whistleblowers’ complaint is in fact credible, but the debate is if President Donald Trump was acting inappropriately by making this request to President Zelensky.
I do not support the impeachment of President Donald Trump because, in my opinion, the whistleblower overreacted and took the phone conversation between the two presidents the wrong way. I believe President Donald Trump asked President Zelensky to investigate the former Vice President and his son so that President could find out if Joe or Hunter Biden were doing something that could potentially harm the United States and put the country in danger. President Trump is also running against Joe Biden in the 2020 election. This could have led President Trump to ask for an investigation so that IF Joe Biden were to be doing something that is violating the law or is harmful, the public would be aware of the issues uncovered before the 2020 election.
I think President Donald Trump should not be impeached by The House of Representatives because he has not committed neither a violation, nor serious crime. An official can only be impeached if he/she has committed a serious crime and/or has violated the law. President Trump has done neither of these and has only requested information about Joe and Hunter Biden to see if they are, in any way, violating the law. I think President Trump has the right to investigate because he is the President of the United States. He is trying to protect the country and it’s citizens from any wrongdoing and crimes that could threaten our national security. Therefore, Donald Trump made the right choice by requesting an investigation and I think he should not be impeached for his actions.
Olivia • Oct 23, 2019 at 10:31 pm
Impeachment is the process by which a legislative body levels charges against a government official, in this case President Donald Trump. Impeachment does not in itself remove the official definitively from office but the House of Representatives take a vote if the impeachment should go through or if it is denied. In the case of the whistleblower report, it is unsure whether donald trump should be impeached or not. I believe that Donald Trump should be impeached for the way he inappropriately bribed the President of Ukraine, not with money but with words or ‘quid pro quo’ (meaning “something for something”). In the call with President Zelenskyy, Trump was boasting about how the United States had been “very very good to Ukraine” and he also said “I wouldn’t say it’s reciprocal necessarily because things are happening that are not good”. This implies that he is expecting something in return for the efforts of providing for Ukraine. What Donald Trump expects from him is an investigation and information that Joe Biden and his son were behind the termination of the prosecutor. Trump says in the phone call “I heard you had a prosecutor who was very good and he was shut down and that’s really unfair”… “there’s a lot of talk about Biden’s son, that Biden stopped the prosecution”… “Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it… it sounds horrible to me”. Donald Trump was trying to get information by using the Ukraine to investigate just because the United States protected them. He was mentioning how much the U.S. did for Ukraine just to gain this information. The reason Donald Trump would want to figure out the truth is to make the democrats look bad since Joe Biden was one of Donald Trumps competing opponents. If Trump could prove Joe Biden for being guilty of the termination of the prosecutor then it could help him win re-election
Kaitlyn Glass • Oct 23, 2019 at 10:27 pm
The definition of impeachment is calling into question the integrity or validity of someone or something. Recently, the House ouse of Representatives decided to formally proceed with a impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump. The process of impeachment begins in the House of Representatives. First is the Initiation process, which a member will introduce the impeachment resolution, then the entire house will vote to initiate an investigation on whether there are grounds for impeachment. Then there is the Investigation process. The Speaker of the House directs the house judiciary committee to investigate whether there are sufficient grounds for impeachment, then the committee will proceed to vote to the full chamber. The next step in the process is the House vote, if it is approved with a majority then it will be moved to the Senate. The next step is being moved to the Senate where a trial will be held. The President may show up in person, or his attorney may show up, or he may not show up at all pleading not guilty. The house managers and the council for president present their opening argument. After the trial the Senate meets to deliberate. The Senate votes on whether the president is guilty of the presented articles. Lastly is the Removal process, if the president is impeached the Vice President will take office. This concludes all the steps in the impeachment process.
There have been many controversies when it comes to President Trump. The latest controversy was when President Trump withheld military aid from Ukraine. This is a quid pro quo because President Trump said that Ukraine had to investigate Joe Biden in exchange for military aid. President Trump and President Zelenskyy of Ukraine had a phone call where President Trump stated that he wanted the President of Ukraine to do him a favor, referring to investigating Joe Biden. Due to the fact that the United States has done so much for Ukraine.
Another controversial thing thing the President has said and has also been recorded and reported saying inappropriate and foul words. Trump has done many things that is unbecoming of a President like when he described the impeachment inquiry process as a form of “lynching”. The president tweeted “So someday, if a Democrat becomes President and the Republicans win the House, even by a tiny margin, they can impeach the President, without due process or fairness or any legal rights. All Republicans must remember what they are witnessing here – a lynching. But we will WIN!” The term the president has used is very offensive and is incomparable to what happened to the killings of thousands of African Americans. This is not Trump’s first time using racial terms and creating racial tension in the office and the United States. He has previously used the term “infestation” referring to undocumented immigrants. Trump has also criticized African American athletes who protested during the national anthem. President Trump has also called Baltimore a “rodent and rat infested mess” In conclusion based on the latest issues with the President i believe the House of Representatives and Senate should move forward with the impeachment process.
Kayla-Marie Cumberbatch • Oct 23, 2019 at 9:49 pm
Since the beginning of his presidency, there have been talks of impeachment against the current of the United States, Donald Trump, but an impeachment inquiry has never been opened. As time goes on and the public gets hold of new information, impeachment has become more favorable. This change in direction comes after a growing controversy that involves the president of the United States and his conversations with President Volodymyr of Ukraine. To understand the magnitude of these proceedings you must understand what impeachment is first. Impeachment is a proceeding instituted by a legislative body to address serious misconduct by a public official and under Article II of the constitution a person can be removed from office after having been convicted of treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. The supposed wrongdoing that is now being investigated by the House of Representatives involves a telephone conversation between the two men where Donald Trump offers a two-way deal, or quid pro quo, saying that if he investigates Joe Biden and his family he will offer military assistance to Ukraine. The issue with this deal is that it involves an investigation into Joe Biden, the former Vice President of the United States and his possible opposing candidate in the 2020 election. This investigation could be a possible cause of impeachment because the President asked a foreign power to help discredit his political opponent. With tainting Joe Biden’s image he could use this to his benefit in the upcoming election to sway voters who may be undecided. This is known to meddle in an election, which is illegal. It has also been reported through the whistleblower complaint, that after the end of the call the transcript of the conversation was put into an electronic system that is usually used to store classified information of a sensitive nature. This act was described as an abuse of the system due to the lack of sensitive material. As new information is reported everyday impeachment seems imminent.
Courtney Lesko • Oct 23, 2019 at 8:51 pm
Our current president, Donald Trump, has done many things that have benefited the United States. However, since his term in presidency had started, certain allegations have been made against him. These allegations are leading people to believe that Donald Trump may not be out best option as president and are fighting to impeach him. Yes, it may seem that this idea is crazy considering to some people, has has done amazing things for the Unites States. But if we look at some of the negative things from his presidency, we might see that he is not out best candidate.
In the Constitution, it is stated that, “The President, Vice President and all civil Officers [judges and member of a president’s cabinet] of the United States, shall be removed from the Office on Impeachment for, a Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.” According to the modern day definition of impeachment, it is defined as “calling into question the integrity or validity of someone or something.” Basically, they go hand and hand with each other. But what proof is there that Trump has done any of these things? First off, it is proven that Trump is a liar. In fact, there have been a recorded 13,000 lies and deceptions in anything’s and everything he has ever said during his presidency. Yes, it is human nature to lie and everyone lies but 13,000 lies is absurd, especially if they go against his original word. Trump also insults anyone who criticizes or thinks differently from him. He fired Rex Tillerson and later went on to call him “dumb as a rock.” Trump is acting like he is in 2nd grade, firing someone then insulting him. He didn’t even use any words hat can make his reasoning look better. He has also had four national security advisors because he can not hold advisors whom he ignores. These issues however are not affecting the mass majority of people, but Trump has also been doing things that are going to effect our future as a country, and they are not good things.
Trump has made lost of promises, just like many other presidents have in the past. But has he followed through with any of them? He kept promoting the idea about building a wall between us and Mexico and then making Mexico pay for it, yet there is no wall there and no money coming from Mexico. He also said “We will end the sanctuary cities that have resulted in so many needless deaths” And yet, he has failed to keep his promise. Not only has Trump failed to keep his promises, but he is failing at keeping us, as citizens of the United States, safe from other countries. Trump has made no progress in limiting North Korea’s nuclear arsenals, meaning at any moment we could get bombed, which is not good. He has also withdrawn from the nuclear arms agreement with Tehran which has seemed to embolden the Iranians to a more violent role in the Middle East. How are we supposed to stand by a president who can not even keep us safe?
Not only have there been allegations during his presidency, but even his campaign has been under review and has proof that could make it unlawful. Back in August, Micheal Cohen told a federal court that he committed multiple campaign- finance violations on Trumps behalf. He said that the president formers fixer said that Trump was giving him “hush payments” for explicit purpose of aiding the mogul’s presidential bid. Federal prosecutors have lots of evidence that Trump was involved with these payments. It makes sense too. We all know that Donald Trump was ben into wealth and inherited most of his fathers earnings. He has basically had everything given to him in life and still thinks he can get away with stuff like this. It’s a disgrace.
I support the decision to impeach Donald Trump. If Donald Trump deserved to be in office then there wouldn’t be ant talk about having to impeach him. The minute someone brought up impeachment just proved that he does not deserve to run our country. There is evidence that he does not keep his promises and can not keep his people safe. There is also proof of illegal actions taken for him to even win the presidency. If he could not win it legally, why would you want him running your country. If Donald Trumps stays in office and gets reelected, the future if the United States could be in jeopardy. Whatever Trump manages to mess us, it will be hard to fix after his time in office is done. That is why we should impeach him now before is too late.
Claire Geier • Oct 23, 2019 at 7:54 pm
President Trump has a lot of bias against him which makes this impeachment so exaggerated in the media. Many people disagree with his way of life and his approach to presidency. In order to be impeached, a president must break a law of a serious matter. I do not think Trump asking his lawyer to look into another family’s suspicious activity is a good reason as to why he should be impeached. He may not be a good person or always say the correct things, but this does not deserve impeachment. Also, if the current president is impeached, the vice president steps up, and I do not think that the people would like his views any better.
Kayla Taylor • Oct 23, 2019 at 4:39 pm
I believe that President Trump should be impeached from office. Even if there is no chance that President Trump could be removed from office, it is only right that the government acknowledge that President Trump is abusing his power as president. This also would eliminate the fact that his impeachment is based on political differences, but more about the major offenses that took place. Based on Article II, section 4 of the U.S. Constitution, states that a president will be removed for conviction of bribery. President Trump violated this law by using bribery to get President Zelensky to find out information regarding the Biden’s that could be used against them in the next election which is not allowed. Evidence of this during the call is when he said “Biden went around bragging that he stopped the persecution so if you can look into it…” this was clearly just him trying to see if he could get any information on him. Throughout this call President Trump is trying to use his status in office for political gain during this call which is a violation. President Trump also manipulates the fact that Ukraine is in need of help from the U.S. which he is willing to give, but only for a price which is the information he is trying to get. Not only is this call evidence that President Trump is breaking serious rules but also there is more evidence against him that was looked over seeing as though the issue was not a problem. President Trump used the vulnerable state that Ukraine President, President Zelensky is in, in order to manipulate him. These violations of the constitution are enough to support why Trump should be impeached.
Sydney Randall • Oct 23, 2019 at 3:43 pm
On July 25, 2019 from 9:03-9:33 am at the President Trump had a telephone conversation with President Zelenskyy of Ukraine, at the residence. This situation has many cabinet members determining should Trump be impeached or not. The democrats filed an impeachment on Trump..Many components come in impeaching a president, but here is why trump should be impeached. President Trump was using his benefits to put someone else down which is not only disrespecting the Biden family but also, making the presidency cabinet a joke to young millennials and future generations. Trump has slammed a democrat to make Republicans look better. Trump had Ukraine figure out many bad components about the Biden family in order to make himself look good in the eye of the candidacy. Trump was trying to sweet-talk President Zelemskyy to get him to help shape the story him and his attorney we’re already trying to create to degrade Joe Biden. Trump doesn’t believe Bidens talk about stopping the persecution also meaning he was jealous of Biden’s success. raised concerns about the legality and ethics of Trump using congressionally approved funds to encourage a foreign government to interfere in a U.S. election for the president’s personal political benefit. Also, Trump is degrading other countries for not helping Ukraine because of their beliefs on the terms of an alliance.
Kerri DeCarlo • Oct 23, 2019 at 1:38 pm
Impeachment is the act of questioning the integrity or validity of someone. Recently, there has been discussion on whether or not the impeachment process of President Donald Trump should be validated or not. I support the impeachment of President Donald Trump because the act of impeachment is not one of taking the person out of their standard position, only questioning what they have done. Some other Presidents, such as Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, and those in higher positions have been impeached before, and most have not resulted in ultimate removal of office. Since this has already been done, I believe that the House of Representatives is correct to impeach President Donald Trump because of his use of authority in trial to gain advancements in the next election. The House of Representatives has authority over the rest of Congress to question the act of impeachment. Although some may disagree, I believe that President Trump may have been using his authority for a way to gain knowledge on his contenders for the next election, such that have nothing to do with his competitor, nor our country. The use of authority to gain approval, and that to use against others is not one that the President of the United States should be demonstrating. I think that because of this, President Donald Trump has a right to be questioned under the act of impeachment because it is only one of questioning, and not such as doing.
Rashawna Lang 2022 • Oct 23, 2019 at 1:07 pm
On July 25th, 2019, President Trump asked the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden. Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden are involved with a Ukrainian gas company. Democrat, Joe Biden, and Republican, President Donald Trump are adversaries running against each other in the 2020 presidential election. An anonymous CIA officer in the White House filed a complaint as a whistleblower. The whistleblower’s complaint said, “The President of the United States is using the power of his office to interfere with a foreign country.” The whistleblower filed his complaint on August 12th. On September 24th, 2019, speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi announced an impeachment inquiry, in response to the whistleblower’s complaint.
Impeachment means that the House of Representatives votes to impeach an elected official for committing an unconstitutional violation. Then the Senate considers whether to remove them from office. The House of Representatives needs a 50% majority vote for the process to go to the Senate. The Senate holds a trial, and they need 68 votes on whether the president is guilty of the violation. If the president is guilty, then the impeachment process will follow the trial. If the president is impeached, he is removed from office and then the Vice President takes office. Do I support the impeachment of President Trump? I support this impeachment because I agree with the whistleblower, that President Trump is abusing the power of his position in office. President Trump investigated Joe Biden so that he could obtain political advantage to be re-elected into office. Was he acting inappropriately by making this request? He was acting inappropriately because he is cheating his way into the election using intel on his opponent.
The House of Representatives is correct to vote to impeach an elected official. They need 50% to move the impeachment process to the Senate. If the House of Representatives believes that an elected official committed a violation to the constitution, then they should be able to vote on the impeachment. Then the Speaker of the House of Representatives can announce the impeachment.
Mariah Dixon • Oct 23, 2019 at 11:51 am
As a young woman of color and a sensible citizen, I believe that the impeachment inquiry, in the end, will not benefit members of the working class. As of September 24th, 2019, Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House of Representatives announced the initiation of a formal impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump. Many people fail to realize that an impeachment inquiry is simply the act of calling someone out for a crime. It is defined as the action of calling into question the integrity, or validity of something. Like if a sibling said to the other, “You took my cookie”. So currently, the House of Representatives is gathering evidence for or against the impeachment of President Trump. If they believe that they have found enough incriminating evidence against President Trump, then a trial will be taken to the Senate. Another important fact that people are unaware of is that when/if an impeachment case is sent to the Senate that does not automatically guarantee impeachment. Impeachment trials operate like any other trial, the accused can be found guilty or not guilty. Meaning that if the House of Representatives takes the case to Senate, then there is still a possibly that Trump will not be convicted of any crimes. In the past, 3 presidents have been impeached. Andrew Jackson and Bill Clinton were both impeached but they were not convicted of crimes or removed from office. And Richard Nixon resigned before he could be impeached. So according to history, the chances of President Trump getting impeached and removed from office are slim. To further emphasize how unrealistic it would be for the senate to convict President Trump, let’s do some basic math. In order to be convicted and removed from office, that would require 67 votes. The senate is currently made up of 45 democrats, 53 republicans, and two independents who are known to vote with democrats. Removing President Trump from office would require all 45 over the democrat votes, both independents, and 20 republicans to turn against their parties and vote against President Trump. That’s just not going to happen. So even if President Trump is impeached, he won’t be removed from office. At the end of the day, President Trump will still be in office, and dragging him through the mud that is the impeachment case, will simply get his supporters even more wound up to support him and possibly vote for him again. And even if a miracle happens and Trump gets impeached, theres nothing stopping him from running for a second term. So as much as I would like for Trump to be impeached, a better solution would be to find a candidate that people can get excited about, then fanning the flames of the Trump administration.
Sophia Terranova • Oct 23, 2019 at 11:46 am
Three times in the past, a President was impeached. An example of this was with Andrew Johnson. From the beginning he was egotistical, racist, and worked against what the President before him, Lincoln, had set to do. After he fired his Secretary of war, and the people wanted to remove him from office, the House of Representatives and the Senate impeached him. Impeaching him allowed for a non-violent argument against the president with evidence to support each argument. President Trump should be impeached after he contacted Ukraine about investigating Joe Biden. What he did was unconstitutional, and he engaged in quid pro quo. When a President is inaugurated, he or she makes an oath to defend and protect the constitution. While he has been president, he has gone against the constitution several times through not supporting American ideals, and breaking laws. He had lied about the size of his inaugural crowd, fired the FBI director once he started to investigate him, and recently even contacted Ukraine to investigate someone who was running against him. He also has not treated all people as equals, especially immigrants and people he could make fun of throughout his time as president. Even if the President is not removed, an impeachment will provide the American people with answers, and the impeachment’s will put the arguments into the hands of smart and educated people about the law and the constitution.
Emma Bittner • Oct 23, 2019 at 11:45 am
I fell that it is right and justifiable for Donald Trump to be impeached. His actions on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, were inappropriate and unethical. Trump should not have asked President Volodymr for information on Biden. Asking for information about a civil affair from foreign nations to assist him in his political campaign was illegal under federal law. While the Department of Justice declined to further investigate the whistleblower allegations made against Trump, Nancy Pelosi along with many others in the House of Representatives feel that an investigation is necessary, and are pushing for an impeachment case. The President in no circumstances should be above the law. If the president is expected to lead the country, they should be a leader in following the laws of the country. It is illegal to request something of value from a foreign nation to help with a political campaign, and that is exactly what President Trump did. Information on an opposing candidate should certainly be seen as “something of value”. Trump should at least undergo an investigation, because of the evidence found in the Mueller Report a well as the transcript phone conversations. The overall purpose of the phone conversation was for Trump to ask for dirt on Biden to better his campaign. Because this is illegal, it is only fair for the President to have to go through the impeachment process. He broke the trust of many Americans by his actions, and there must be repercussions in place.
Meadow Hallmen • Oct 23, 2019 at 11:44 am
In my opinion, President Donald Trump should be impeached. The President is currently being investigated by the American people, as well as the proper services that hold the power to impeach him. Trump is accused of abuse of power when he allegedly threatened to withhold aid to a struggling country until controversial information or “dirt” on his most successful political opponent and their family in the 2020 Presidential Election, Joe Biden. Because the true definition of impeachment in America is a charge of misconduct made against the holder of public office, Donald Trump’s resume along with social media trail applies. Emphasizing the last allegation of the election scandal involving Russia, this article of information accompanying many others brings Trump’s illegitimacy, dishonesty, and obvious wrongdoing. These facts lead many, including myself to believe that President Donald Trump has earned the privilege to at least be impeached.
Amara Njoku • Oct 23, 2019 at 11:43 am
When it comes to the Impeachment Inquiry of President Donald Trump, I believe that it’s in the nation’s best interest to continue with the impeachment process. I feel this way because according to the United States Constitution, “The President, Vice President and all Civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.” In this case it’s evident that the President’s cause of impeachment would most closely relate to the doing of misdemeanors. Recently,President Trump admitted to communicating with the President of Ukraine in order to gain more information on one of the Presidential candidates for the 2020 Presidential election. This is significant because as stated by the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, this misdemeanor is considerable enough to possibly impeach President Trump.
Since the disclosure of this information regarding Trump’s alleged misdemeanors, Nancy Pelosi announced an impeachment inquiry. Committees are now in the process of collecting information regarding charges that act as reasons for Trump’s impeachment. These various charges are known as Articles of Impeachment and they could possibly be approved by the House of Representatives via a simple majority vote. If approved, Trump will officially be impeached but not removed from office. In order for him to be removed there would have to be a court trial that decides what consequences, if any, Trump will receive as a result of his misdemeanors as president. If not approved, Trump will remain in office as the president.
The definition of impeachment is, “calling into question the integrity or validity of someone or something.” When applying this to the current situation with President Trump, it is evident to me that the House of Representatives has the means to impeach him. In Nancy Pelosi’s speech that launched the Trump Impeachment Inquiry, Pelosi stated, “The actions taken to date by the president have seriously violated the Constitution…The actions of the Trump presidency revealed dishonorable fact of the president’s betrayal of his oath of office, betrayal of our national security, and betrayal of the integrity of our elections.” Pelosi’s statements along with the details mentioned earlier convince me to support the impeachment of Donald Trump because his actions and behavior clearly violate the United States Constitution in attempts to unfairly gain a political advantage and abuse the power he is given as President.
Sources:
Bloomberg Politics: “Nancy Pelosi Launches Impeachment Inquiry of President Trump”
The United States Constitution
Eliana Williams • Oct 23, 2019 at 11:41 am
Impeaching U.S President Donald Trump?
Impeachment calls into question the validity of something. Once an individual is impeached,
the next step will be a possibility of facing conviction by a legislative vote, which may lead to
removal from office. Allegedly U.S President Donald Trump has been in communion with
Ukraine to help lead him in the 2020 Presidential Election. Leading to conclusions, that from the
beginning of the 2016 election there was already an interference with Russia. Donald Trump
knows what he’s doing and it all feels like a setup, because he even pleaded guilty of having a
conversation with Russia. Therefore, he knows that the next subject will be impeaching him, but
that’s just a long process that the House won’t do. From what I know, I’m going to disagree
about the Impeachment of U.S President Donald Trump, because Impeaching him might fail, it
can cause lasting remarks amongst his supporters and the whole Impeachment process will be
pointless.
Impeachment can go downhill if legal proceedings aren’t met against Donald Trump. Of
course, many House members will not vote for the impeachment and many Senators will not
vote for the conviction. As you may know many House members and Senators are mostly
Republicans who support Donal Trump. So why would they want him to be in harms way and
be removed from office? Not only will a failed impeachment strengthen Trump, but also his
supporters.
Trump’s supporters will be highly upset and displeased if an impeachment occurs and it fails.
Trump’s supporters will start to believe that the government is controlled by non-intelligent
people. They will then start to think that all allegations against Trump were false from the start.
Many people who support Trump see him as an innocent person, but he is highly far from being
innocent. Instead of U.S President Donald Trump being impeached, I would like for him to be
removed from office permanently.
Will impeaching Trump even do anything? Honestly it won’t, because he can still run again
for office in the 2020 Presidential Election. I don’t think that Trump will even be removed from
office if he is impeached. Only the House members and Senators have the decision to remove
him from office, which is not going to happen because they favor him. It won’t even get to that
point, because it’s a long process to handle. Therefore, what’s the point? There’s no point in
supporting the Impeachment, because it’s going to be a waste of time.
In conclusion, I don’t support the impeachment of U.S President Donal Trump for multiple
reasons. Impeaching Trump can fail, it can cause lasting remarks amongst Trump’s supporters
and the entire impeachment process can be pointless. You need a certain amount of votes from
the House to impeach Trump and not everyone is going to reach that needed amount. Even if it
reaches the point of impeaching Trump, it’s not going to matter. He can still run for office again
and he won’t be removed from office, because the House won’t vote for that to happen. The
entire impeachment process is lengthy and needs everyone’s cooperation, which will not
succeed. The House of Representatives can only initiate the process and it allows for the Senate
to be the main people for impeachment trials. I think that the House of Representatives is correct
to impeach, but only to a certain extent. The House needs to let go of any bias, whether it’s
negative or positive. As well as, just accessing everything correctly. So instead of him being
impeached, I would like for him to be removed from office permanently.
Koree • Oct 23, 2019 at 11:41 am
Donald Trump is a genius in disguise, but he has let the power go to his head and is treading on thin ice. The president has not been shy when it comes to being in the news. It seems that he is in the news for everything but good. There’s never a week that goes by when Donald Trump comes under fire for something he’s said publicly, tweeted, or allegedly done. Democrats are pushing fro impeachment, and Republicans are pushing for Democrats to leave the president alone. And the media? The media is divided into either side. President Trump has shot back at the talk of impeachment, claiming that Democrats are trying to win the 2020 election by soiling his already stepped on name. He’s done a lot of questionable things as a businessman and as the president, but now people are calling for formal action to be taken.
The term impeachment is a general term, but was first brought into question from what was written in the Constitution. Impeachment is a noun, meaning “the action or calling into question the integrity or validity of something”. In this case, it is calling the president’s use of his executive power and platform into question, as is calling in his credibility. The talk of impeaching Donald Trump comes after Speaker Nancy Pelosi initiated the inquiry. The inquiry was released after information was broadcasted, regarding national securities and claiming that Donald Trump abused his political power to further advance his personal interests. After this information got out, it was like the entire U.S. erupted. Tweets, news articles, even TikTok videos and memes were being made about impeaching Donald Trump. People in a more local setting had been whispering on about the president getting impeached. But this is the first time it had actually come to a nationwide light.
When he started his presidential term, Donald Trump was (and still is) regarded as a racist bigot who has no business being the leader of a nation. While all of these things have been in the media’s spotlight for the entirety of his term, as well as in the eyes of millennials and the generation before them, Donald trump is an unsung genius. He campaigned to the group of people who had subsequently been forgotten about during former president Barack Obama’s term: easily swayed and persuaded white people. Think of it like this: A slight drunk man rambling in a bar about whatever, saying everything that everyone wants to hear. He’s loved and praised by his supporters. But that all may be starting to fall as his past and present mistakes make an entry into the news. Questions of his honesty and his fear of losing makes it so incredibly easy to doubt his ways, which is what many of his so called “loyal” supporters are starting to do.
Donald Trump requested Ukrainian help to begin an investigation into his lead opponent in the 2020 Presidential election. His lead opponent is former Delaware senator Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden. While Hunter works as a lawyer, Biden was also for 47th Vice President of the United States, serving for former President Barack Obama. Biden and his son have voiced their distaste for President Trump with a series of public speeches and social media posts. Many Americans have voiced their disapproval for Trump’s actions. What he has asked Ukraine to do is considered unlawful and cheating in many peoples’ eyes. Trying to gain insight on your rivals for your own personal power boost, and a foreign country’s help at that. It wasn’t an inexcusable act that had been condemned by mostly the entire nation. This has been the cherry on a very problematic cake of allegations that Ukraine and Russia interfered with the 2016 Presidential Election so that Trump could win.
Personally, I believe that Donald Trump should be impeached. Even if I want this, it would not want it played out if Mike Pence is who gets the Presidency. I personally believe Mike Pence is even worse that Donald Trump, both being terrible in a high position of power. Based on the definition os impeachment, I feel as though it should be brought to donald Trump’s attention that he cannot get away with everything he does. There have been too many allegations against him, and there are too many skeletons in his closet to name.
Isabella Pulia • Oct 23, 2019 at 11:41 am
On the afternoon of September 24th, millions of American’s prayers were answered. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi finally announced the impeachment inquiry of President Trump. The journey of impeachment is hardly over though. The Senate must still vote with a two-thirds majority in order for the impeachment to pass. If this impeachment passes the United States will be left in a historical predicament. President Trump may be impeached from office though since he is running in the 2020 presidential election he could be reinstated into office if he wins. Which is deranged to think about considering President Trump’s history.
The impeachment inquiry was announced because of President Trump’s recent scandal. On July 25, 2019, President Trump had a phone call with the Ukrainian president, President Volodymyr Zelensky. On August 12, 2019, an anonymous CIA officer working in the White House filed a complaint as a whistleblower. This complaint did not reach Congress until September though. During this phone call, President Trump and President Zelensky were talking about Joe Biden. Who is also currently running for the 2020 presidential election. President Trump asked President Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter’s involvement with the Ukrainian gas company. The Ukrainian gas company has been under investigation for corruption. The whistleblower believes that President Trump has abused his power as our president for political gain and he poses a threat to national security.
The impeachment of President Trump is essential we Americans deserve a president we can trust. This isn’t the first contradictory position President Trump has been in. During the 2016 presidential election, there were rumors about how the Russians interfered with our votes. President Trump is known more for his scandals then the good he has done for this country. The fact that this is the second contradictory position President Trump has been in regarding the presidential elections is not a coincidence. Joe Biden is President Trump’s number one threat in the upcoming election. It’s extremely likely that he is attempting to dig up dirt on him and his family to use against him. This says a lot about President Trump and his character. President Trump obviously believes he cannot win on his own. He needs other sources to help him win the election. President Trump is known more for the disgraceful things he has done rather than the good he has done for this country. He knows that we know that and that is why he turned to Ukraine.
America is the land of the free and the home of the brave. Knowing this, how could we not support President Trump’s impeachment. America is a place where all people have the opportunity for prosperity. President Trump is a racist, sexist, and many more things and we allowed him to be our president. It’s time to send this man back to New York and send a more deserving candidate in his place.
kirsten jones • Oct 23, 2019 at 10:46 am
Yes, I support the impeachment of Donald Trump. Based on the definition of impeachment, I think the House of Representatives is going in the right direction with impeaching trump. I hope the government goes with it because the process is very long and drawn out which could make them give up. If the impeachment process doesn’t follow through I hope it scares trump and make him resign. I think impeaching Donald Trump is a good choice because it will make the country safer as a whole. He makes decision of impulse with thinking about the consequences we, The people, will endure. For an example, the wall, it had more negative than positive effects but he still decided to invest in building it. It takes children away from their family which will make future generations even more broken than it is now. The decisions he make currently effects the country right now and the future. Another decision Donald trump made was to begin war with Korea. Beginning war with them made no sense to the public. instead of resolving the problem Donald trump wanted to corrupt the citizens living in the United States. He has no sympathy for the People living in this country and other countries. The only people that can support any of his decisions is high class, rich people. Overall, The house of rep should follow through with the process. It wouldn’t be fair for any other group to have too finish what they introduced. Donald trump shouldn’t receive any more chances to clean up the mistakes he have made within the United States government.
Laine Reddish • Oct 23, 2019 at 10:35 am
Should Donald Trump be impeached for his alleged accusations? Impeachment is the calling into question the integrity or validity of someone or something. First, a trial is held in the Senate, in which the president will plead “guilty” or “not guilty”. House managers and counsel for the president present open arguments and when the trial is over, the Senate discuss all opinions. Then, the Senate votes on whether or not the president is guilty or innocent. If the president is already convicted of at least one article, the Senate may decide they do not want to vote. There is a required two-thirds majority vote to impeach the president. If the president is impeached, then the vice president takes his place. If the vice president cannot take office, then it falls to the Speaker of the House, then the President pro tempore of the Senate.
I do not think President Trump should be impeached. He declassified the telephone call, there is nothing factual, and there was no direct witness. If there was something bad in the phone call, then the President would not risk ruining his own career. President Trump is not a politician, but he is a businessman. He does not sugar coat anything, instead he is brutally honest. This phone call does not implicate any impeachment that is necessary. He is smart enough to know what will ruin him and what will not, this phone call will not. Secondly, there was nothing factual in the phone call. President Trump mentioned Joe Biden and his son’s name once, but he never actually told President Zelenskyy to look into Biden and Hunter. Lastly, in CNN’s report the whistleblower said, “I was not a direct witness to most of the events described.” The whistleblower cannot be used to impeach Donald Trump because they are not an eyewitness of the situation.
Valentina • Oct 23, 2019 at 9:43 am
What is impeachment? Impeachment not only means to be removed from office, but it’s a multi-step process where the House of Representatives take place and vote for an official to be removed from office. This process requires the law makers, house of representatives with votes over 50%, and the senate who must vote with a thirds majority of votes.
Based on the data given to us by the government, the script of President Trump and President Zelenskyy of Ukraine telephone conversation has many odds and parts that don’t quite make sense. The main question being do I support the impeachment process against President Donald Trump? Yes I support the impeachment of President Donald Trump. The script itself of Trump’s conversation with president Zelensky seems to have parts missing, which is very suspicious so much that we can come up to the conclusion that it could have been manipulated before being shared with the public. Since the government had to cut parts of the script that are not permitted to be shared with society, this makes it hard to really understand, and come up with a conclusion on whether there are potentially illegal actions taking place, making it a good excuse to hide any type of information that could risk Trump’s presidential position. As we all know, president Trump has been involved in many lawsuits such as his financial tax information, potential sexual misconduct and assault, making it very hard and giving him a reputation that puts his integrity to question. The conversation with President Zelensky is very bizzare in many levels. With the United States being interested in Ukraine, and Trump using his power to ask president Zelensky to assist him in persuing conspiracy theories against him in exchange to help Ukraine. However, Trump does not use specific words that can put him at risk of any more conspiracies. The document reaches a point where it’s not clear but it’s pretty obvious that bribery is taking place where president Trump tells the president of Ukraine that he would gladly help Ukraine and involves president Zelensky for help with the theories that are being said about him.
The impeachment process seems valid based on the two pieces of information given to the students, since it is ilegal to involve other countries in the election process. What Trump is trying to do is get Ukraine to dig up dirt on the candidate running against him, being completely illegal. In Trump’s words, “ I would like you to do us a favor thought because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it. I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine, they say Crowdstrike…I would like to get to the bottom of it. As you saw yesterday, that whole nonsense ended with a very poor performance by a man named Robert Mueller, an incompetent performance, but they say a lot of it started with Ukraine. Whatever you can do, it’s very important that you so it if that’s possible”. This shows how Trump is using Ukraine’s President for his own benefit since his campaign is at risk.
kaila davis • Oct 23, 2019 at 9:06 am
Impeachment is defined as calling into question the integrity or validity of someone or something. The impeachment process is a process by which” legislature brings charges against civil officer of government from crimes alleged to have been committed”. The impeachment process is set up into six different parts. First three with the House of Representatives which are initiation , investigation, and house vote, and second three with Senate which are trial, senate votes, and removal.
Recently there has been an impeachment process on recent president, President Donald Trump. The process of impeachment is in action now for multiple reasons. A reason that the impeachment process began was because of other reasons and the way that he handles/ portray as a leader. Donald Trump likes to use mudsling/ call many people names without seeming to care. An example is he calls black congressional “ a rat and rodent infested mess”. One of the main reasons Donald Trump is in the impeaching process is because of a telephone conversation he has with Ukrainian President , President Zelenskyy. While he is on the telephone call with President Zelenskyy he mentions that the United States has been very good to Ukraine and basically ask for favor. Donald Trump words were “ the United States has been very very good to Ukraine. I wouldn’t say that it’s reciprocal necessarily because things are happening that are not good but the Unites States has been very very good to Ukraine”.In that sentence right there he communicates that the United States is not doing that well and that they have done so much for Ukraine. In that thought it was implied to me right then and there at that moment that President Donald Trump was hinting for a favor / help from Ukraine because of how the United States have helped them. Later after reading over the conversation the favor that Donald Trump ask for is an investigation on Joe Biden because he would like to dig up dirt. The reason for digging up dirt is because he is the runner up for the election of 2019 and he wants information to try and bring Biden down and not win. Donald Trump says” there’s a lot of talk abut Biden’s son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find it about that so whatever you can do with Attorney general (Rudy Guillani) would be great. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecuting so if you can look into it… it sounds horrible to me”. In this exact statement he tells Zelenskyy to do some research on Biden. This got out and this started the initiation process of the impeachment.
I believe that Donald Trump should be impeached and I do support the impeachment process because of many reasons. Donald Trump does good things and also does bad things just like any other president. Unfortunately, the bad things that Donald Trump does overpowers/overweighs out way more to the public. Some examples are mudslinging, his tweets, misuse of power, how he felt about migrants and families, the border,and of course the phone call with President Zelenskyy. My reasoning for saying this is because if we continue to have a president who is not providing for the people and is more for his self, being the President of the United States is not the right job. This may also affect the people of the United States. It will increase the probability of the United States downfall, and will allow the people to suffer in the long run.
It will be very hard for him to to be impeached because the House of Representatives are Republicans and so is President Donald Trump. The Democrats or people against will have a run for their money trying to impeach President Donald Trump because they will have to have a load of information to get past and continue with the impeachment process. By the time this will all happen it will be time for re election again. There has been past impeachment’s of President’s before . Also there has been presidents close to impeached such as Bill Clinton, Andrew Johnson and Richard Nixon. The United States should continue to stay strong, be behind each other and stay as one throughout the whole impeachment process.
anonymous • Oct 23, 2019 at 8:04 am
In order for Donald Trump to be impeached, some type of misconduct would have to be proven. According to the telephone call between Donald Trump and the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, I don’t really see that he did anything wrong. Only a very small portion of the conversation was related to providing Trump with information. The first time it came up in the conversation, Trump seemed to be speaking about the 2016 election asking Zelensky to find out what happened, he even referenced the Moeller report. If he was guilty of something, why would he have brought this up. He did then ask the Ukrainian president to look into Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden. Hunter Biden had a position on the board of the Ukrainian gas company. This is a position that he got when his father was Vice President in 2014. I think it’s a fair question, if this were Donald Trump’s son that was given this position now, he would be being investigated for that too.
Throughout the entire conversation that I read, it didn’t seem like Trump was pressuring or persuading the Ukrainian president to do anything, it just seemed like a normal conversation between two presidents. Since Donald Trump won the election in 2016, the Democrats have been investigating him on one thing after another, in hopes to somehow overturn the election. To me it seems like a lot of wasted time, when people could be putting their efforts into making our country better and focusing on ways to work together.
Bella Huettner • Oct 23, 2019 at 7:59 am
On August 12th, 2019 the whistleblower filed a complaint showing “urgent concern” that Trump has abused this office for personal and political gain during a call with President of the Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky . The whistleblower believed that Donald Trump pressured the Ukrainian President to help Donald Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign by finding things to harm Joe Biden’s election campaign, who at the time of this call was the front runner to be the democratic bid for the 2020 election. This not only bring us concern for how the president is ran his 2016 presidential campaign and how he’s going to run his 2020 campaign but it also causes grave concern over how he has run this country for the last three and a half years he has been in office. Donald Trump is guilty of the crimes in question and should be impeached for what he did.
When reading through the transcript for the call between President Trump and President Zelensky. You could argue That Trump never actually says that without President Zelensky helping the United States he will not send the money to help the Ukranian people but throughout the call you understand that he is alluding that if the Ukraine doesn’t help with finding the information about the Biden family then it would be a lot harder for the Ukranian government to receive the money that the United States set aside for them. This shows President Trump using his power to manipulate Zelensky into getting him the information that he wants. Since the Ukraine is in a time of conflict and since the Ukraine is a smaller country President Trump knows that if they don’t get that money the government and citizens of the country could face dire consequences. So, he used the money as a pawn in a game of chess so that he could get the information that he wanted from the President of the Ukraine.
In the weeks before President Donald Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky had the phone call that set off the chain of events Donald Trump blocked the money that was supposed to go into the Ukraine from getting to the Ukraine. This further shows that Trump wanted to get this information and he was willing to withhold this money until he got that information.
Autumn Weaver • Oct 22, 2019 at 10:49 pm
I think President Donald Trump should be impeached. In his personal and in his political life he has not behaved in the right way to this country and the people. He has violated their rights in many ways.
In his personal life he refused to let the government see his income tax returns. This is something that all of our presidents have done. Why hasn’t Donald Trump down this? Has he been dishonest? It we saw his income tax returns, would he have not become president?
His political life has been full of him doing wrong things. When you read all the tweets you see that he speaks and writes before he thinks. His words have been unkind, untruthful and harmful sometimes. President Donald Trump has affected the lives of many citizens and others in a negative way. Maybe he doesn’t know the mental and physical harm some of his decisions have caused. Many people lost money, too. Many people are affected by the Mexican border problem.
Our president used interference from foreign countries in his election. These countries were Russia and Ukraine. He has now asked Zelebskyy, the president of Ukraine to investigate the Bidens. Joe Biden might run against Trump in the 2020 election. Donald Trump and Zelenskyy say that Joe Biden’s son had shut down the good prosecutor in Ukraine. These foreign activities are not good for our national security, our democracy.
Yes, I think that the House of Representatives is correct to impeach President Donald Trump. The U.S. Constitution gives them the power to charge executive officials with wrong doing and remove them from office. And Donald Trump has down wrong
Briahna Stumpf • Oct 22, 2019 at 9:51 pm
I think that the president should be impeached because he had no right to ask Ukraine for information just because the United States of America has helped them out in the past with many types of international issues. President Trump should not be using his power as president to ask the Ukraine president about the affairs they have done with former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden in past years. President Trump only wanted to use his power to investigate Joe Biden and the past events he and his son were involved in with the Ukraine government. The president did this only because Joe Biden did had the prosecution cancelled for his son and the possible conflict of interest. President Trump claimed that Joe Biden was bragging about how he had his son’s prosecution cancelled, so the president felt that he had the right to ask the Ukraine president for information on the case involving the Bidens. This seemed as a conflict of interest to President Trump because Joe Biden was Vice President at the time when his son had a leadership role for a Ukrainian fuel company. Since the president was so persistent about the Hunter Biden case the House of Representatives had the right to call him out on what he was trying to do. Even though the founding fathers made the requirements of the impeachment process vague, the House of Representatives could investigate the president because he tried to bribe the president of Ukraine by saying that the United States had assisted their country in the past on multiple occasions, so they should give him information about the case involving the Bidens.
Cynthia Mullins • Oct 22, 2019 at 9:38 pm
Impeachment is defined as calling into question the integrity or validity of someone or something. With that being said, I do not support the impeachment of Doland Trump because I believe that he did nothing wrong when he spoke to Zelensky, the president of Ukraine. I think that House of Representatives can do an impeachment inquiry to find the facts but I do not believe that they should impeach the president out of office. There clearly isn’t a strong reason for them to do so. The first reason of why Trump shouldn’t be impeached is because there was nothing in the transcript of the telephone call between President Trump and President Zelensky to suggest that Trump was stating to Zelensky that he would hold back money to Ukraine unless Zelensky investigated Joe Biden’s son. Even Zelensky later stated that he had no knowledge that money was being withheld from Ukraine, in other words, he never felt threatened by Trump. There is also too much secrecy with the whistleblower and he/she was linked to members of the Democratic Party. Another reason why I believe that Trump shouldn’t be impeached is because the economy we live in has significantly improved since Trump was elected. Therefore, if he is removed from office, our economy will decline, causing more despair in our country. My last reason is that impeachment will cause even more distraction in our country. The law makers should be focusing on improving the lives of Americans instead of finding reason after reason to remove President Trump from office. Overall, I’m against his impeachment because in my opinion, there are no good reasons to do it.
Kayla Thuman • Oct 22, 2019 at 9:02 pm
Impeachment is a charge of misconduct made against the holder of a public office. Impeachment itself does definitively not remove the official from the office, it is essentially the statement of charges against the official. It is a six-step process if completed, which ends in removal of the official from office. In this case, Trump is accused of using his political power for personal use by asking Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden and his son, his leading opponent for the 2020 election. I believe that Donald Trump should be impeached.
The phone call between Trump and Zelenksyy explicitly shows Trump asking for an investigation on the situation with Hunter Biden. Since Trump is running against Joe Biden in the 2020 elections, there is a definite possibility that he wants this information for his own political gain. If he gets dirt on his opponent, he will be almost guaranteeing his victory in the upcoming elections.
Trump also mentions his personal attorney, Rudy Guiliani. Since Mr. Guiliani has no government position, he is not allowed to assist the president in any political affairs. Trump tells Zelenskyy that he will have Guiliani get in touch with him, which is a clear example of assistance in political affairs. In this instance, the attorney general should be the only person involved in assisting with Trump’s foreign affairs.
On top of this evidence from the phone call, Trump attempted to cover us his tracks in the conversation he had with Zelenskyy. White House officials were told to remove the transcript of the call from the computer system. This proves that Trump knew the conversation included something wrong that he did not want people to find out about, and therefore is evidence that the impeachment request is valid.
Alison Tully • Oct 22, 2019 at 6:46 pm
(Please publish as anonymous)
Regarding the impeachment of President Donald Trump there is controversy whether he should or shouldn’t be impeached. This was brought about when an anonymous source reported a possible bribery made by the president when on the phone with a Ukraine official to the media. Investigations have ruled this as a legitimate cause of impeachment if it turns out to be true. Therefore, in this essay I will be discussing my thoughts and opinions of President Trump and the impeachment controversy.
Firstly, I’d like to say I could see how people would think President Trump was subtly trying to bribe Ukraine into getting information, and in all honestly at first, I thought the same. Though I do not agree with every action Mr. Trump has done or some of his beliefs, I do not think this is what he should be impeached over, because if you look at this in a literal viewpoint, he hasn’t done anything wrong. The comments “the United States has been very very good to Ukraine. I wouldn’t say that its reciprocal necessarily because things are happening that are not good but the United States has been very very good to Ukraine” and “I would like you to do us a favor though because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it” are two comment that caught my eye and made it very difficult to choose a side, at first glance I was almost sure I agreed that this was a bribe but after re-reading transcription and considering the difference of a bribe and a favor and what they both consisted of I reconsidered. Before judging whether this was a bribe or just a simple favor you need to know the difference. Merriam- Webster dictionary describes bribe as: “to influence the judgement or conduct of someone with money or favor” and a favor as: “To do a kind and helpful act for someone”. Therefor in order to bribe someone you need to ask for something from someone while threating to take something valuable away if they do not comply, and in the transcription, there was never a time President Trump verbally threated Ukraine that if they did not meet his wishes there’d be consequences. By saying “I would like you to do us a favor though because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it” he left it opened to Ukraine to deny his offer without the verbal threat of consequences of doing so. The reason why most people believe this was a bribe is because the assume or imply he meant or said it in a threatening way, but how can we be so sure? It’s not up to know to assume or imply how he meant it, we just need to look at the facts that are clearly stated and leave our biased judgment out of it.
Katherine Sommers • Oct 22, 2019 at 6:03 pm
Impeachment is a multiple step process that does not always include the removal of an official. The House of Representatives can introduce an impeachment proceeding. The Senate serves as the jury in the impeachment trial and requires a two third majority vote to convict and remove an official. On July 25, 2019, a phone call exchanged between the president of the United States, Donald Trump and Volodymr Zelensky, the President of the Ukraine occurred. During this phone conversation Trump asked the Ukrainian President conduct an investigation on Joe Biden, a democratic opponent of trump in the next election. A complaint was filed on August 12, 2019 by a whistleblower claiming that Trump was using his power for political gain.
On September 24th , 2019 congress received this information and Nancy Pelosi began an impeachment inquiry. People began to doubt the whistleblowers credibly but there is no way to deny that Trump requested an investigation on Biden. I believe that Donald Trump should be impeached because he is abusing his power to benefit himself in the 2020 election campaign. On June 13, 2019 Ellen L Weintraub, the chair of The Fedral Election Committee put out statement regarding foreign affairs during the election process. She states “It is Illegal for any person to solicit ,accept, or receive anything of value from a foreign national in connection with a U.S. election.” This law explicitly states that Donal Trumps request for an investigation on Biden from the Ukrainian President is an illegal action. As the President of the United Staes, Donald Trump is required to follow all US laws to uphold our democracy. This illegal action brings into question the credibility of Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and the interactions of this previous campaign with foreign governments
Emma Lerch • Oct 22, 2019 at 1:36 pm
Please do not publish my work with my name on it.
Emma Lerch
Mrs. Frieman
US History – Pattern E
October 20th, 2019
Impeachment Inquiry
I support the impeachment of President Donald Trump and believe that the House of Representatives is just to impeach him because Donald Trump has displayed forms of dishonest behavior and has been malfeasance in office. Trump displays great dishonesty because he was not upfront with the government when he was questioned about his phone call with Ukraine. Once the information was released people then began to realize that what he had asked Ukraine was unjust and unfair to Democrat opponent, Joe Biden. The President is secretive and hiding his wrong doings and that in a way makes him dishonest with our nation and our government. President Donald Trump is also a malfeasance in office because he uses his political power in an unfits and unfair way in order to get what he wants. For example, he tried to get some ‘dirt’ on 2020 election opponent Joe Biden and there has been continuous talk of him getting Russia and the Ukraine to interfere with the 2016 election in which President Trump won. These are not the only examples of times when Trump was dishonest or malfeasance in office, but some of the most recently talked about issues that have come to surface in office resulting in an impeachment inquiry in office for President a Donald Trump. These reasons seem only valid to justify why President Donald Trump should he impeached. It is important that our government takes control of this now especially before the 2020 election because if President Trump were to win again we do not want a President in office that does not deserve to be there.
Jordin Lambert • Oct 21, 2019 at 11:33 pm
As a registered independent voter, my alliance is not with either democrats or republicans, but with people who could make a positive impact in our nation. Because of my political views, I advocate the impeachment of President Donald Trump. He has broken the Foreign Emoluments Clause, which is a clause which prohibits any form of benefit, advantage, or profit from a foreign state or country. He has broken this clause be refusing to dissociate his personal business that frequently have contact with foreign governments. For example, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China leases spaces in Trump Tower, New York. Another example is Abu Dhabi’s government tourism agency also rents from a Trump associated building. Also, the Trump Hotel DC has grabbed the attention of international visitors, foreign agents, and diplomats who reserve rooms at this hotel in the yearning of earning his favor. Trump has also broken the Domestic Emoluments Clause, which the president’s compensation for his obligations cannot exceed the stipulated presidential remuneration nor obtain other benefits from the government affecting the president to become biased in favor of specific states. This clause has been as Steven Mnuchin, Linda McMahan, and Gary Cohn live the Trump DC hotel during the workweek. They are paid by the government and use that pay to stay in Trump’s hotel. Trump also receives payment from the United States above the preset presidential salary. Also, Trump has violated the First and Fourteenth Amendment. The First Amendment does not allow any form of Congress to create a law “respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…” The Fourteenth Amendment does not allow any states from “depriving” anyone of “life, liberty, or property without due process of the law” or prohibiting them, in a state’s jurisdiction, equal protection. Trump has violated the First and Fourteenth Amendment by favoring Christians to Muslims. He intended to give Christian refugees presidency while promising to forbid Muslims from entering the country. Furthermore, a resultant ban was materialized to attempt to create a “legal blanket” which breaches the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. t. Moreover, he has been deceitfully executing laws by disregarding the 1965 Immigration and Naturalization Act (INA- disregards the per-country limit for employment-based immigrant visas and increases the limitation for family-sponsored immigrant visas) and signing an executive order which broke it. Though these are my personal comprehensions for promoting the impeachment of President Donald President, there are already impeachment requirements that must be fulfilled to really determine whether or not he should be impeached or not.
In the U.S. Constitution. Article II, Section IV, states that “The President, Vice President and all Civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from office, on impeachment for, and conviction of treason, bribery or other high crimes or misdemeanors.” The problem with this article is the vagueness of it. Impeachment is defined as “the formal process of bringing charges against high-ranking government officials in bid to remove him/her from office… treason, bribery (illegal act with the exchange of consideration with purpose of influencing behavior), or other high crimes/misdemeanors (obstruction of justice, subornation of perjury, or abuse of authority).” Obstruction justice is the criminal offense involving the interference, through words and actions, with the accurate operations of the court. Subornation of perjury is the crime of lying while under oath. Abuse of authority is the use of legislated/authorized powers by government officials for private gain. Trump exemplifies abuse of authority by asking President Volodymyr Zelensky (Ukrainian) to investigate Joe and Hunter Biden. Furthermore, he froze the financial aid ($400 million) to Ukraine before the call occurred. Using government power for personal gain is an impeachable offense according to the U.S. Constitution and the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. Also, there is another possible act of abuse of power. President Trump dismissed FBI Director James Comey during an investigation into his presidential campaign. His actions demonstrate how he believes that he is the federal law by firing people that could affect his presidency. Furthermore, he expresses obstruction of justice by his administration releasing classified information to Devin Nunes, firing James Comey because he was experiencing from Russia and Comey’s serious interest in the Trump-Russia investigation. It is unclear if he was pressured by external forces, did it for personal gain, or had a valid reason to use his executive power to fire former FBI Director Comey. In addition to Comey, Trump, along with his aides, attempted to block former Attorney General Sally Yates from testifying before Congress. Moreover, he committed the subornation of perjury by swearing under oath that has president he will faithfully uphold the law of the United States of America. However, he has violated INA, which he knew by signing that executive order, which broke the legitimate enacted law. Due to his actions and his failure to uphold these presidential obligations under oath, President Trump has enough evidence against him for him to be impeached.
Olivia owens • Oct 21, 2019 at 8:57 pm
Impeachment is a charge of misconduct made against the holder of public office. Base of this definition Yes, I completely support the impeachment of Donald trump. Our founding fathers put into the constitution that outside countries can not interfere with our election process. Also I feel that quid pro quo for the help of corruption against candidate Biden and his son also is an impeachable act. In the United States the occupation as president is one of the most important jobs. This job is given to someone who can be held to the standards of leading and make smart conscience decisions for the country. It is clear that president trump can not exemplify this due to his corruptive nature.
Gill Deitsch • Oct 21, 2019 at 4:52 pm
After reviewing the definition of impeachment, I believe the impeachment of President Trump is not only called for, but necessary. I believe this because President Trump has been revealed to repeatedly and routinely place his self-interest above his presidential responsibilities throughout his presidential campaign and presidency thus far. As observed in the Mueller Report, Donald Trump and his campaign not only allowed, but invited Russian interference into the US’s 2016 presidential election. He did this in order to hack and steal competitors’ data, in which he and his campaign then formed strategies around for personal gain in the election. During the election, Trump and his campaign lied about Russian ties, and after Trump had won the election, Trump sought to obstruct and destroy evidence of Russian communication and intended to interfere with the investigation into the election. This is a prime example of how Trump abused his higher status for personal gain and how he lied to the public as well as federal investigators about his highly illegal actions. Another example of when President Trump used his presidential power for personal gain is when he urged Ukrainian powers to launch an investigation of former vice-president Joe Biden. Proof of this can be found in the transcript of the phone call between President Trump and Ukranian President Zelensky on July 25, 2019. The phone call was a half hour long with the intended purpose being for Trump congratulate newly elected President Zelensky on his new presidency. Within the phone call Trump said the following, “I would like you to do us a favor… 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.” From this quote it can be assumed that Trump urged the investigation of Biden to find any possible discreditable evidence that he could use to help him win the 2020 presidential election, in which Biden is one of his competitors. From the results of this investigation, Trump would then use it for his personal gain in the 2020 presidential election. Finally, one example of when Trump directly lied to the public about political matters for his political safety is when he lied about the accuracy of the whistleblower complaint of the Trump-Zelensky phone call. Trump, addressing the matter of the whistleblower complaint, tweeted the following on October 9, 2019, “The Whistleblower’s facts have been so incorrect about my ‘no pressure’ conversation with the Ukrainian President.” Trump also stated the following while making remarks about the report to reporters on October 2, 2019, “Well, the whistleblower was very inaccurate.” While it is in question whether anything from the phone call’s transcript was removed before its release, it has in fact been confirmed that Trump did ask Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, to initiate an investigation of Joe Biden, as discussed previously in this essay. Since most of the whistleblower’s claims have been confirmed as true, we can conclude that Trump had lied about the phone call’s contents as being inaccurate to protect himself. In conclusion, I believe that The House of Representatives is correct in impeaching President Trump because of his intention of using his status/position for his own personal gain, intentional lying about important matters to the public, other government officials, and investigators, as well as allowing foreign officials to unfairly and secretly intervene in political matters on his behalf, all of which were matters discussed in my response.
Amber Malinowski • Oct 20, 2019 at 8:47 pm
I do not support the impeachment of Donald Trump because in the past, many other people who have ran for president have tried to come up with ways to suppress their opponents and gain an advantage on their running mates. That was just what Donald Trump was trying to do. This was obviously not the best thing for Trump to do, as he is in the spotlight all the time since is the face of the United States, but I do no think it enters into one of the categories for why an office member could be impeached. Based on the definition of impeachment, the House of Representatives is incorrect in trying to impeach. The definition of impeachment involves calling someone’s integrity into question. Donald Trump did not mess with the integrity of the United States or himself when trying to question the Ukrainian president. He merely was trying to get information for himself, so he was informed about his running mates and information about them. All he was trying to do was continue his presidency in the upcoming 2020 election. He in no way did anything that damaged the reputation of the United States in asking the Ukrainian President questions about Joe Biden’s son.
Ana Maria Frujinoiu • Oct 17, 2019 at 11:35 pm
I personally do support the impeachment of Trump because, in order for the President to be removed from office, he must either commit treason or certain “Crimes and Misdemeanors”. Trump has already been found having committed several offenses against the American government as well as the Constitution itself. Since the definition of impeachment is basically a charge of misconduct made against the holder of a public office, the House should be able to least attempt impeaching Trump, for he has indeed abused his power as President.
Hayley • Oct 17, 2019 at 8:05 am
I think that the impeachment timing is odd because Trump’s term is almost over, but it also makes sense because the House is currently democratic while Trump is republican. I believe the reason for impeachment is valid because he was threatening national security by interfering with Biden’s campaign. I think the House’s decision is correct because his actions could harm the entire country as well as the future of the country. Also the impeachment is not guaranteeing he will be removed but that he will be investigating which I think is necessary.
Kelsey Reynolds • Oct 16, 2019 at 9:15 pm
I support the impeachment of President Donald Trump. I believe that not one person should hold ultimate power for the entire nation, therefore the House of Representatives is correct in calling into question something that may not seem entirely valid or right. President Trump has been called into question many times by ordinary citizens, and the House is only helping these citizens to get their opinions heard. President Trump has also done some things that do not seem very professional which give people reasons to be unsure of him. For example, asking a foreign country to look into a possible presidential candidate could come across to many as unprofessional.
Sarah Zile • Oct 16, 2019 at 4:42 pm
I do support the impeachment of President Donald Trump because I do not believe he makes good decisions for the entirety of the United States. He does not speak in the manner that is fit for a president who is supposed to be the ideal person to lead the country. For example, he doesn’t support global warming, has unnecessary quarrels with Russia, has created a lack of healthcare, and breaks up families by sending them back to their homes. The definition of impeachment is the process by which a legislative body levels charges against a government official. Impeaching an official does not guarantee them getting completely kicked out of office but rather starts a trial. I think the House of Representatives is correct to impeach because he possibly used his power for personal interests by asking Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden and has previous questionable relations with Russia. This is an issue of national security and Donald Trump should be checked and tried to see if he truly committed a crime. This will ensure a safer future for America and for everyone within it.
Carolyn Albert • Oct 15, 2019 at 1:45 pm
I think that there are many people wanting to impeach President Trump not because of crimes that he has been accused of but because of his policies and things he stands for. From that perspective, I do not think that President Trump should be impeached because his Vice President, who would be the president in his place, has the same types of values as the president and is more serious about many of them. However, based on the definition of impeachment, I do think that President Trump overstepped his boundaries of power when using his political power to try and investigate a presidential opponent. It does seem to me that he is abusing his power to get rid of his competition for the 2020 presidential election.