Wednesday, December 11, 2019

Where Is the Evidence?


            On Tuesday, December 10, 2019, Nancy Pelosi announced that the U.S. House of Representatives was bringing two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump. Democrats began talking about impeachment before or as soon as Trump was inaugurated. They claimed that impeachment was warranted because of quid pro quo, and then they moved to bribery. The actual articles of impeachment are neither quid pro quo nor bribery because they could find no evidence to prove the charges.


            The specific charges made by the Democrats are “abuse of power” and “obstruction of Congress.” Again, they have no evidence to prove their claims, but they are moving full speed ahead. The Judiciary Committee will begin its deliberations on the matter on Wednesday and cast their votes soon thereafter. If the committee approves impeachment, a vote in the full House is expected before Christmas. If the full House votes to impeach Trump, a trial will be held in the U.S. Senate.


            This is not the first time that a President of the United States has been threatened with impeachment. Numerous Presidents have been threatened – including Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush – but Andrew Johnson (successor to Abraham Lincoln) and Bill Clinton are the only Presidents to be formally impeached by the House. The Senate has never removed a U.S. President through the impeachment process. Five of the past six Republican presidents have been threatened with impeachment, and Richard Nixon resigned when told that he would most likely be impeached and removed from office.


            The Framers of the Constitution wanted a way to remove a bad president from office, but they did not intend for the impeachment process to be easy. The process starts in the House of Representatives with the announcement of a formal impeachment inquiry. This time the inquiry started in the Intelligence Committee with Adam Schiff and then moved to the Judiciary Committee, but it normally starts in the Judiciary Committee. If this committee votes to impeach, they write and pass articles of impeachment. Then the full House votes to proceed with impeachment. Only a simple majority in the House is required to impeach a President. 


            The impeachment process then moves to the Senate where a trial is held with witnesses and testimony. Unlike the House inquiry, Trump may call his own witnesses. However, if enough Senators are ready to vote against removal from office, the Senate trial may be very short and not include witnesses. The President is removed from office only if two-thirds of the Senate find the President guilty of the crimes contained in the articles of impeachment.


            No one expects the Senate to remove Trump from office, including the Democrats who are bringing the charges against him. They know that they cannot win the 2020 election against a strong Trump, so they are attempting to make him look bad. However, their antics seem to be working against them because American citizens are not stupid. We can see what the Democrats are doing, and we do not like it.


            Americans know that Trump has done many good things for America – without much support from the Democrats. We can see that Trump loves America and is doing what he does because he thinks it will be good for America and Americans. We all want the impeachment process to be over, but most of us understand that this will not be the last time that Democrats try to trap Trump. The best way to stop the rogue Democrats is to vote them out of office in 2020!

No comments:

Post a Comment