Donald Trump is the 45th President of the United States of America. He succeeded the former US President Barack Obama. Trump in his tenure until now has taken a lot of decisions which has impacted the USA’s growth in the positive direction. The Economy of America during trump’s time is considered to be one of the greatest economies of their country. He expanded domestic energy production and became the world’s top oil producer, surpassing Russia and Saudi Arabia. Trump announced America’s withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, shipped Javelin anti-tank missiles to Ukraine, cancelled a meeting with Putin at the Group of 20 summit over Russia’s seizure of Ukrainian navy ships. He ushered in a golden age for women in the CIA. He also secured the release of 19 people, including 16 Americans, from foreign captivity and has done much more for this country. Why the impeachment then?
This impeachment is the consequence of the Trump- Ukraine Scandal.
The scandal revolves around the allegations on trump of coercing the government of Ukraine for providing damaging narratives on his competition for the 2020 presidential elections, Joe Biden and some information on the interference of Russia in the 2016 US elections. He has also been alleged to coerce the governments of other countries for the same. Trump had included his official administration, his lawyer Rudy Giuliani and his Attorney General William for the same. In exchange of information, he had accepted to provide military aid to the country. However, Trump did not wait for the exchange to take place simultaneously. He provided the Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky with a package of $400 million as a military aid package which was mandated by the congress with the intentions that the Ukranian president would cooperate by fulfilling his end of the bargain.
This whole thing blew out of proportion when a whistleblower complaint was lodged in August 2019. These complaints raised questions about trump unethically using his presidential powers for his gain. The Trump White House confirmed to all of these allegations on him. A non-verbatim transcript of the call between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that he, after all, did request to conduct investigations into Joe Biden and his son Hunter, as well as a conspiracy theory involving a Democratic National Committee server, while repeatedly urging Zelensky to work with Giuliani and Barr on these matters. Mick Mulvaney said that the reason behind Trump withholding the military aid was the theory that Ukrainians had framed Russia for hacking into the Democratic National Committee system. As the impeachment theory initiated, Trump came out and publically requested the Ukranian and the Chinese government to investigate Joe Biden. The US ambassador to the EU stated that he worked with Giuliani at Trump’s “express direction” to arrange a quid pro quo with the Ukraine government.
Timeline of the proceedings
September 2019- Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the United States House of Representatives began a formal impeachment inquiry on Trump. She accused him of betraying his oath at US national security, at his own office and the integrity of US’s elections.
October 2019– Three congressional committees got witnesses to testify that Trump had asked for the Bidens and Burisma investigation to be public.
A letter was sent to Pelosi wherein it was mentioned that the investigations had to stop as there weren’t enough votes in the house and all the witnesses were giving closed doors interviews.
Jim McGovern introduced a resolution which referred to House Rules Committee which set forth the “format of open hearings in the House Intelligence Committee, including staff-led questioning of witnesses, and [authorization for] the public release of deposition transcripts.
November 2019– The house held several hearings wherein the witnesses testified publically. The witnesses included Amb Marie Yovanovitch, Alexander Vindman, Mike Pence’s chief European security adviser, Jennifer Williams, Kurt Volker, Tim Morrison, etc.
December 2019– The House Intelligence Committee voted 13–9 along party lines to adopt a final report and also send it to the House Judiciary Committee.
The first hearing had happened on December 4 which was an academic discussion on the definition of an impeachable offence. Among the multiple witnesses was Tarley who had witnessed for the former president Bill Clinton voted against Donald trump with lack of evidence as a result. On December 5, Speaker Nancy Pelosi authorized the judiciary committee to start drafting the articles for impeachment. A series of impeachment began wherein the lawyers of Trump were invited. Trump couldn’t attend the NATO summit due to these proceedings.
Dec 10, 2019, Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee announced that they would levy two articles of impeachment, designated H. Res. 755: (1) abuse of power, and (2) obstruction of Congress, in its investigation of the President’s conduct regarding Ukraine. Later on that day a draft was released of the article. They also received a report outlining the constitutional case for impeachment and asserting that “impeachment is part of democratic governance.” The voting was going to happen on Dec 14 but was abruptly postponed to the next day.
On December 13, the judiciary passed the articles with 23-17 votes.
Article I, Section 2, Clause 5 of the U.S. Constitution states that “The House of Representatives … shall have the sole Power of Impeachment.”
On December 18, There was a formal impeachment vote in the House of Representatives. Both articles of impeachment passed. The votes were 230 in favour and 197 against the impeachment.
The public opinion towards the impeachment seems almost balanced. According to the A USA Today/Suffolk University poll conducted, 51 % of the population is against the impeachment. In a CNN poll, 48% of the population opposed the impeachment whilst 45% were in favour of it.