You may have heard about the thrilling news known as Trump’s impeachment. Yes, the President of the United States, Donald Trump, could possibly get impeached. This may be considered exciting or heartbreaking news, but regardless of your personal beliefs, here’s the latest scoop on Trump’s impeachment from Worcester Technical High Schools’s well-known history teachers Mr. Blake, Mr. Packard, and Mr. Champagne.
Everything YOU need to know:
- What is a presidential impeachment?
“A presidential impeachment at its core is when the other members/branches of the government have a vote of no confidence in their president and attempt to remove them from office.” – Hayden Champagne, History teacher at Worcester Technical High School.
- Why is President Trump under impeachment inquiry?
President Trump called the president of Ukraine, President Zelensky, trying to convince him to dig up some dirt on Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden. Former Vice President, Joe Biden, is running for president in 2020. Currently, Joe Biden is in the lead for the democratic presidential race. Clearly, Trump sees him as a threat and political rival, since Trump is also running for president in 2020. This explains why Trump felt the need to get in contact with the President Zelensky and push him to investigate Hunter Biden, despite how illegal that is.
“He also withheld military aid, and when Zelensky asked him for the military aid, he said I’m going to need a favor from you though,” which as an example of quid pro quo. – William Packard, History Teacher at Worcester Technical High School.
- What is an impeachment inquiry?
“You can think of it as an investigation.” – Jeffrey Blake, History Teacher at Worcester Technical High School.
- Reasons to take a President out of office:
If the president commits treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors, which is also stated in the U.S Constitution, Article II, Section 4.
“Generally, most people would say that a breach of public trust, right? Or an abuse of power is grounds for an impeachment.” -Mr. Blake
- What are Trump’s thoughts on this?
According to CNN Politics, President Trump is constantly tweeting about this situation on Twitter. Clearly, he is very furious with this impeachment. He believes Democrats want to hurt the Republican party and President.
- What is the presidential impeachment process like?
“The impeachment starts at the House of Representatives who act as the investigators. They do the inquiry of the impeachment. Then, it moves to the Senate for the trial portion.” – Mr. Blake.
“To be removed by the Senate, you need sixty-seven Senators to remove him, and thirty-nine Republicans are going to stick with him no matter what, as of today.” – Mr. Champagne.
To sum things up, President Trump allegedly did some pretty illegal things. Our president? Doing something illegal? Ironic right? “So Basically, he’s using foreign government for his own personal gain in an election,” according to Mr. Packard.
On July 25th, President Trump shared a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky. Not only that, a transcript of the phone call was even released to the public by the White House as well. Within this 30 minute long phone call, one notable thing took place. President Trump was urging President Zelensky to investigate Trump’s political rival and former vice president, Joe Biden, along with Biden’s son, Hunter Biden.
“Hunter Biden worked for an oil company that was located within Ukraine.. his phone conversation with President Trump was more about establishing a relationship with each other for the first time. President Trump was hoping that by establishing a good relationship with Zelensky, he could also try to find some dirt on Biden..” Mr. Champagne stated.
It’s clear why he wanted President Zelensky to dig up some dirt on Joe Biden, to win the 2020 election. It’s obvious to take notice that Trump and Biden don’t really have that great of a relationship with one another. From social media, we can assume that former Vice President Joe Biden has a lot of anger towards President Trump.
“He’s using the power of the executive for his own personal gain, it’s that simple… The power of the presidency is not for one’s personal gain.” Mr. Blake said. Mr. Packard added, “He’s really abusing power.”
Maybe this is a lesson to show why we shouldn’t attempt to blackmail the President of Ukraine. Surprisingly, President Zelensky claimed there was no blackmail within the phone call. But, that’s not what the 30-minute long phone call insisted. “From what I have read, it seems as though President Zelensky has taken a similar approach to President Trump, where he is assuring the media and general public that nothing illegal had taken place,” said Mr. Champagne.
If he were to be impeached, things would get pretty weird. Mr. Champagne stated, “Well this impeachment has the ability to do one of two things: The impeachment could lead to a greater divide within the country along party lines, and lead to more emboldened voters showing up for the 2020 election. The other route could be a sense of unity within the country if there was enough that both Republicans and Democrats agreed with from the impeachment inquiry and how they proceed moving forward.”
Clearly, both Democrats and Republicans have been in a large disagreement about this impeachment and more voters would be involved in this election. But let’s say Trump does get fully impeached, what would happen to him? “If a full impeachment does take place, Trump would be forcibly removed from office, leaving the Presidency to the Vice President.” Mr. Champagne added. Meaning, if a full impeachment actually goes through, we can say good-bye to President Trump.
President Trump is currently refusing to comply with the House’s impeachment inquiry. Never in history has this ever happened. According to Mr. Blake, “They’re asking for documents.. They’ve subpoenaed currently six individuals within the Trump Administration.. But in all six incidences, the President is refusing to give anything to Congress.”
Refusing to comply is very misleading. Whether President Trump is guilty or not, this makes him look guilty. If he has nothing to hide, why try avoiding to give information to the House? Mr. Packard explained, “Article I, Section 2, of the U.S Constitution, says, ‘The House of Representatives shall choose their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment.’ The President of the United States does not set the terms on how impeachment is going to be run. Clearly, he is violating Article I, Section 2, Clause 5 of the U.S Constitution. It’s right there, it’s plain as day, anyone can understand that.”
President Trump doesn’t have the power to determine how the impeachment inquiry is going to go. It literally states in the U.S. Constitution he’s not able to do so, but he’s doing the exact opposite and is breaking the law.
There are so many ways Americans can get involved with this impeachment. By the use of social media, many individuals have chosen to express their feelings about this particular situation. One of the many websites that encourages Trump’s impeachment is, Need to Impeach. The website includes information about the reasons behind this impeachment, a petition that supports this impeachment, stickers that support Trump’s impeachment and more. Based on this website, about 8,378,039 Americans have already signed this petition and are supporting his impeachment. You’re even able to receive a free sticker by filling out a form on this website!
