Nancy Pelosi Begins Formal Impeachment Process of Trump
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/24/us/politics/democrats-impeachment-trump.htmlhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-administration-to-pull-troops-from-northern-syria-as-turkey-readies-offensive/2019/10/07/a965e466-e8b3-11e9-bafb-da248f8d5734_story.html
After months of holding out, Nancy Pelosi has agreed to go through with the formal impeachment process of President Trump. She announced that they would be charging Trump with, "betraying his oath of office and the nation's security by seeking to enlist a foreign power to tarnish a rival for his own political gain" (NY Times). With a Democratic majority in the House of Representatives, the impeachment inquiry will most likely pass through the House and go to the Senate for a trial. However, the Senate has a Republican majority, which raises questions over whether the GOP will turn on Trump. As a 2/3 majority is necessary to convict the sitting President, multiple Republicans would need to vote in favor of impeachment in order to have Trump convicted and removed from office.
A whistleblower brought to light allegations that Trump had pressed the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, to investigate the Biden family. Seen as a ploy to use a foreign power for his own political gain, Trump was highly criticized for this. The Democrats felt that after this, they finally had the platform and momentum needed to begin an impeachment inquiry.
Additionally, there has been increasing anti-Trump sentiment within the GOP, especially due to his recent actions regarding the Kurds in Syria. Traditionally allies of America, the Kurds are a highly oppressed people that have experienced genocide at the hands of the Turkish people in the past. On October 7, Trump agreed to remove American troops in Northern Syria who were protecting the Kurds, essentially allowing the Turkish military to go in and slaughter them. The outcry was immediate, as both Republicans and Democrats spoke out against this decision. The Kurds, who had helped American forces in Iraq, Afghanistan, and with ISIS, would be left completely vulnerable without American protection. This decision by Trump greatly increased both Democratic and Republican backlash against him, and may influence the impeachment process.
This is an example of American politics related to the impeachment process of a U.S. President. The Speaker of the House must first announce the impeachment process, then various committees must investigate the offenses. If it passes a House vote, it goes to the Senate for a trial. If 2/3 of the Senate vote to convict, the President is forced to leave office. With a Republican majority in the Senate, it will be interesting to see how the process results.
1. How do you think the Senate will vote if the impeachment process gets to them? How will Republicans respond?
2. How will Trump's recent actions in Syria affect the impeachment process? Will it cause enough GOP backlash to convict him in the Senate if it gets there?
3. If Trump becomes the first president to be convicted in an impeachment inquiry, how will this reflect on American politics? How will it affect voting in the next several elections?
Steven Yarmolinsky
ReplyDelete1. If the impeachment reaches the Senate, I believe that there will be no chance that Trump gets convicted.Mitch McConnell, has openly stated, multiple times, that he believes this entire impeachment process is a sham, as this is a thought shared by many Republicans across the country. I believe that Republicans won't even turn their heads tot his, and will continue to focus on the upcoming election.
1. I think the likelihood of Trump being convicted and removed from office is very low because the Republicans occupy 53 seats in the Senate. Most of them will veto the articles of impeachment, thus Democrats will not be able to get the supermajority needed to remove Trump from office.
ReplyDeleteThe Senate will not be moved to convict Trump in the slightest. With a majority Republican Senate, Mitch McConnell has made it clear that the Republicans will not switch on their party leader and current sitting president. In addition, the Republican party has seemingly morphed into the Trump party, in the sense that current senators are scared no matter their stance on him, as it will make reelection more difficult.
ReplyDeleteIf impeachment does in fact reach the Senate, I think it is very unlikely that they will vote to convict him. Given that a majority of the seats are held by Republicans, it will be very hard to whip the vote and achieve the 67 needed votes against Trump. Unless something new pops up in the coming weeks, the chance that Trump will at least last until the next election cycle is very high.
ReplyDelete1. If the impeachment process gets to the senate I believe Trump will not get convicted. The Republicans will try to prevent Trump from getting taken out of office because they have the majority in the Senate. If the Republicans were wise and there is enough evidence to impeach Trump, then they should else the parties reputation will continue to go down the drain.
ReplyDeleteTrump’s impeachment and possible conviction highlight the high tensions that exist between parties in politics today. Both parties have become more distinct from each other and more homogeneous internally, which has made compromise difficult. It is difficult to make progress when the parties are pitted against each other. If Trump is convicted, it would be the first time in history that a president has been removed from office. This is reflective of the idea that politics in the US today are at a high point in terms of chaos and corruption. The next election would be impacted greatly, as Trump would not be allowed to run for reelection. He holds the current majority for the Republican party, so the Republican candidacy would be uncertain. If Trump is not convicted, he will be the first ever impeached president to run for reelection
ReplyDeleteNow that the impeachment process has reached the Senate, they will undoubtedly not vote to convict Trump. Only two republicans in the House voted to impeach Trump, so it is obviously a divided issue that republicans are not in favor of. With the Senate being majority republican, and 2/3rds vote being required to convict Trump, Trump would not be convicted in the Senate.
ReplyDeleteThis would historically reflect negatively on American politics in the era, as a president getting impeached indicates political scandal, as shown my modern views of Nixon and Clinton. It would not likely affect the next election because if he is impeached, but not convicted, nobody is changing their opinion on him. Democrats would still hate Trump and Republicans would still vote for him, as shown by how polarized the votes were in the House of Representatives.
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