President Trump Impeached. Will He be Removed from Office?
Democrats allege that Trump abused his power to take Ukraine’s help to get his Democratic presidential rival Joe Biden investigated in a closed corruption case.
By Rakesh Raman
President Donald Trump becomes the third president in the U.S. history to get impeached. The House of Representatives – the lower house of the United States Congress – passed Wednesday both articles of impeachment, abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
Voting almost along the party lines, the House voted 230-197 to charge Trump with abuse of power and 229-198 to charge him with obstruction of Congress.
Impeachment is the process by which a legislative body such as the Congress levels charges against a government official including the President. Impeachment is not supposed to remove the official from office. Rather, it is only a process for indictment.
If the official is convicted after indictment, then only he or she can be removed from office. Only those individuals can be impeached who commit crimes such as treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.
Democrats allege that Trump abused his power to take Ukraine’s help to get his Democratic presidential rival Joe Biden investigated in a closed corruption case. And when Congress started impeachment proceedings against Trump, he obstructed the impeachment inquiry by refusing to provide related documents and also stopped witnesses from participating in the impeachment hearings.
Now, in January, the case will go for trial to the U.S. Senate where Democrats do not have sufficient numbers (67/100 votes needed) to win the case and get Trump removed from office. Democrats need at least 20 votes of Republican Senators to win the case.
Almost all Republicans in the Senate will oppose Trump’s removal because Trump has support of almost 40 million voters who are ready to reelect Trump despite all his misdemeanors. They will also vote for only those Republicans who protect Trump in this impeachment case.
Obviously, Republicans can’t afford to go against Trump. It is largely believed that if Trump is not removed from office, he will win again in 2020 by surreptitiously taking foreign help – most probably from Russia.
As Republicans have turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to Trump’s misbehavior in terms of his vulgarity and open attempt to invite foreign interference in American affairs, it appears that most Republican lawmakers are also under the Russian influence. They want to win elections by hook or by crook.
Also, with a series of daily tweets against impeachment, Trump is trying to gain voters’ sympathy so that he could again get elected in 2020 presidential election scheduled to take place on Tuesday, November 3, 2020.
After his impeachment, Trump tweeted today, “In reality, they (Democrats) are not after me, they’re after you (people of America).”
By Rakesh Raman, who is a national award-winning journalist and social activist. He is the founder of the humanitarian organization RMN Foundation which is working in diverse areas to help the disadvantaged and distressed people in the society. He also creates and publishes a number of digital publications on different subjects.
