Since day one of Donald Trump's presidency, the Democratic Party has plotted and schemed to remove him from office. From the accusations of Russian collusion to the Mueller hearing, and now claims of Ukrainian collusion, no stone has been left unturned in their efforts of indicting the president. Is Donald Trump truly the crooked criminal that the mainstream media makes him out to be? Are Republicans blinded by the truth? Is Donald Trump a monster in chief?
Whether you are scrolling through Facebook, Twitter, or watching your favorite 24-hour news station, there are two different messages being expressed: it's either believed that Donald Trump is a criminal and only a matter of time until the Senate convicts him, or he has another five years in office. It's black and white. This split thinking only seems to be a reflection of the polarization surrounding this man since the 2016 campaign.
Before I go off on a tangent, and further express my personal views on the impeachment of Donald Trump, let's examine the facts at hand.
On Wednesday, December 18th, the House of Representatives impeached Donald Trump on the grounds of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Only three Democrats crossed party lines to vote against Donald Trump's impeachment, and every Republican voted against Trump's impeachment. It's clear that the impeachment vote in Congress was a partisan vote. It was about the Democratic members of Congress expressing their disdain of the president, and the Republicans standing behind him. At the end of the day, it was a popularity contest, and Donald Trump lost.
According to the 9-page article of impeachment, Donald Trump ignored and injured, "national security interests and other vital interests to obtain an improper personal political benefit" by enlisting a "foreign power in corrupting democratic elections."
The July 25th, 2019 phone call between President Donald Trump and President-elect of Ukraine Zelenskyy reveals that Trump requested two favors. First, President Zelenskyy investigate possible Ukrainian involvement in the 2016 Presidential election, and second, to investigate Joe Biden's possible involvement in the termination of Prosecutor General of Ukraine Viktor Shokin after the Obama administration in March 2016 threatened to withhold 1 billion dollars in loan guarantees to pressure his removal from office. At the time, Viktor Shokin was investigating Ukraine's natural company Burisma Holdings and the owner Mykola Zlochevsky over accusations of tax evasion and money laundering during the period of 2010- 2012. In 2014, Hunter Biden became a member of the board of directors of Burisma Holdings, earning a living of $50,000 per month. There is speculation that both Joe and Hunter Biden were involved with shady business dealings, which ultimately led to Shokin's dismissal from office.
According to the Democrats, the phone call reveals Donald Trump's abuse of power rather an act of quid pro quo, since a week prior to the phone call Ukrainian aid was blocked at the direct request of the President. The Democrats claim that he was using the blocked aid as leverage in order to dig up dirt on Biden which would "benefit his reelection, harm the election prospects of a political opponent, and influence the 2020 United States Presidential election to his advantage."
The problem with this accusation is that his actions fail to truly reveal a crime being committed, much less an abuse of power. I'm no political analyst, but I'm having a hard time seeing the difference between Donald Trump's request for Ukraine's investigation and the Obama administration withholding 1 billion dollars in loan guarantees in order to remove Viktor Shokin from his position. In fact, I am having a hard time distinguishing how Donald Trump's request is any different from any time a sanction is put in place against a country. I guess anytime aid money is withheld from a nation, the United States President is committing bribery and extortion.
While some may claim that Donald Trump's telephone call reveals a violation of campaign finance laws, since it is illegal for a candidate to receive "anything of value" from a foreign national, this is still a stretch. Campaignlegal.org claims that Trump's plea for the Ukrainian government to investigate Joe Biden and Hunter Biden's involvement is a direct violation of campaign finance law, since the information could help benefit his reelection campaign. If Joe Biden was not a presidential candidate, would it still be considered a violation for him to want to investigate Biden's possible shady dealings in Ukraine? Is it wrong for the president to discuss investigating potential corruption surrounding Ukraine with the president of Ukraine?
The second article of impeachment charged President Trump of obstruction of Congress, accusing Trump of directing "the unprecedented, categorical and indiscriminate defiance of subpoenas." However, while it may be true that Donald Trump denied the issue of subpoenas, he may be protected against committing a crime under executive privilege. According to Mark Rozell, the Founding Dean of the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University, executive privilege can be defined as "the right of the president and high-level executive branch officers to withhold information from Congress, the courts and ultimately the public" when it comes to "(1) certain national security needs and (2) protecting the privacy of White House deliberations when it is in the public interest to do so." Executive privilege is an implied power expressed in Article II of the United States Constitution. Whether or not Trump's denial of the subpoenas is simply an exercise of executive privilege is a matter for the Supreme Court to hear.
The two articles of impeachment against Donald Trump are weak. The bottom line is that the reason Donald Trump is being impeached is that the Democratic Party does not like his policies. In an interview with Politico, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi alluded to this after stating the inquiry of impeaching Donald Trump has "been going on for 22 months. Two and a half years actually,"
I wonder how the impeachment inquiry of the Democrats has been going on for so long when the alleged crimes occurred in July of this year? According to Pelosi, for two and a half years the Democratic party has been focused on impeaching Trump, rather than biting their tongue and working across the aisle to pass legislation that would help the American people. Pelosi and the Democrats have weaponized the impeachment process.
What kind of message are the Democrats sending to the American public, much less the world? What precedent are we setting for our children in the future?
It's a sad day for America. It's a day when politics have won and democracy has lost.
