Yes, President Trump should be impeached.

By: Britney Maddox

In recent months, the House of Representatives has been going through an impeachment trial regarding Trump’s actions towards the Ukraine government. Throughout the trial there is a seperation of people for Trump to be impeached or not to be impeached. My thoughts are that, Trump should be impeached for these reasons: his actions towards Ukraine, abuse of power and untrustworthy character.

Ukraine Scandal

The impeachment trial is taking place against Trump and his administration’s interactions with the Ukraine government. Trump used the United States military power to ask Ukraine to find information about former Vice President Joe Biden’s son. Using military forces for a presidential campaign is an abuse of power and shows that President Trump cannot responsibly detach his personal gain from the safety of the American people. According to a  reporter on NBC news, “In doing so, the President placed his own personal and political interests above the national interests of the United States, sought to undermine the integrity of the U.S presidential election process, and endangered U.S national security.”

Actions as President

As President of the United States Trump makes important decisions regarding the livelihood of us—American citizens. I do not feel comfortable with Trump making decisions about my life for another four years because of his questionable motives as the president. In past years Trump has treated immigrants less than human, he’s banned transgender people from serving in the military and has not been honest to the American people. From The Washington Post, “Glenn Kessler and The Post’s other Fact Checkers have counted more than 13,ooo lies and deceptions [from Trump].”

In the impeachment trial Trump has been accused of recent and past actions that are proving he can no longer handle the privilege of being the President of the United States.

No, President Trump should not be impeached.

By: Lyrah Panarigan

The process goes like this:  the House of Representatives vote on the articles of impeachment of the convicted federal officer (in this case, President Donald Trump). If majority (218 out of 435) House of Representatives vote for impeachment, the decision falls into the hands of the Senate – and if more than two-thirds of the Senate votes for impeachment, then the president (or civil officer) is then impeached. Now months into the impeachment inquiry, America has not said “You’re Fired!” to President Trump just yet. Given the transcripts, the accusations and claims against President Trump, pushing for impeachment during this time is not only ineffective, but a waste of time.

The transcripts between President Zelenskyy and President Trump, and the allegations of withholding military aid and a White House meeting for Ukraine are being used as evidence in both arguments. Democrats hold the stance that President Trump had asked for foreign intervention for personal matters in exchange for Ukraine’s needs, stating it as a form of “bribery” (or quid pro quo) that results in impeachment according to Article II of the United States Constitution. However, the withholding of military and White House meetings, as law professor Jonathan Turley explains at the hearing, are from “…a relatively small number of witnesses with largely second-hand knowledge of the position.” There are no facts that the Democrats have stated to back up their allegations against President Trump. 

Given that it is almost the end of the presidential term, calling for impeachment during the last laps of Trump’s presidency defeats the whole purpose of demoting our president – it does not take him out of the running of the 2020 election. Impeaching President Trump would then put Vice President Michael “Mike” Pence in office, who – while having a cleaner record than Trump – has more of a conservative agenda. 

If the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives come to majority vote in favor of impeachment, the next step would be getting through the Republican-controlled Senate,  which conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro in his talkshow states, “The Democrats know it’s going nowhere in the Senate.” While President Trump has been accused of not being the ideal President everyone had in mind, impeaching him on an unsupported claim is not a legitimate reason.