President Trump acquitted

Lauren Pappert, Photo Editor

Despite almost three months of investigation that led to a successful impeachment, President Donald J. Trump was acquitted after a 20 day trial on Feb 5, 2020. According to the impeachment papers, President Trump was being tried on two charges: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
In Article I of the Impeachment Papers, the House of Reps accused Trump of using his position of power to solicit Ukrainian involvement in the future election. The lower chamber of Congress claims Trump created a quid pro quo with Ukraine by offering the continuation of foreign aid for the investigation on one of Joe Biden, a 2020 presidential candidate, and his son, Hunter Biden.
The House concluded that the charge of abuse of power was appropriate because Trump’s actions had corrupt intentions and were motivated by personal political benefit. They believe that there will be a threat to national security and the constitution if Trump were to remain in office, and his actions will continue to violate the ideals of the rule of law.
There have been many mixed emotions about the first charge of the impeachment, and whether the extent of the evidence was enough to charge President Trump.
“I don’t think President Trump should have been impeached over the first article because none of the information was confirmed about the military in Ukraine and was speculation,” said senior Drake Devine. “However, if there was real evidence, then I would feel different.”
Others feel, even if the evidence wasn’t concrete, Trump’s intentions are enough to result in impeachment.
“It can be inferred with a high degree of certainty that Trump’s only purpose in ordering an investigation was to use this for leverage against Biden,” said senior Colin Leftwich. “Especially considering that Biden was at the time the political frontrunner of the democratic party. This is a clear misuse of his power and a violation of public trust in my opinion.”
In Article II, the House of Representatives goes in-depth on the President’s second charge, obstruction of Congress. By refusing to comply with multiple subpoenas warranted, the House of Representatives claims President Trump interfered with the capacity of the investigation.
Due to his lack of appearance, and influencing other members to ignore subpoenas, Congress could not uncover the full extent of President Trump’s relations with the Ukrainian Government.
Many feel that not only this charge but the impeachment, in general, was a partisan, politically motivated action against President Trump.
“The only reason the Democratic Party tried to impeach him [President Trump] was to damage his votes in this coming up election,” said junior Aiden Price. “In my opinion, it’s just got republicans to want to vote for the right even more.”
The house of representatives used transcripts of phone calls between President Trump the Ukrainian President, and witnesses present during said phone calls. After hours of questioning of witnesses and presentation of numerous phone calls, the House of Representatives successfully impeached President Trump. The impeachment trial, held by the Senate, began on Jan 16, 2020.
Throughout the impeachment trial, President Trump’s defense counsel focused their argument on two factors: The charges within the Impeachment Papers did not fulfill the requirements of an impeachment according to the Constitution, and impeaching Trump on these charges will create a difficult precedent for future presidents.
Article 2, section four of the constitution states, “The President, Vice President and all Civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.” President Trump’s defense argued that President Trump was within his lawful, executive power when he withheld aid from Ukraine.
The defense stated he intended to get rid of the corruption in the Ukrainian government; and, the defense stood by their statement that President Trump did not want a quid pro quo. They used the fact that President Trump unfroze the aid before any investigations were announced.
The defense not only wanted to argue for the current president, but many presidents to come. The defense argued that if the charges against Trump resulted in removal from office, it would create a very tight leash for future presidents. Based on this impeachment, any president could potentially be impeached if he or his actions are unfavored by the Congress, even if they are within their executive rights.
According to the New York Times, shortly after the trial began, Representative Adam Schiff, and many other democratic legislators, repeatedly advocated for the access of more witness testimony and documents the Trump administration previously blocked. Schiff’s reasoning behind the push for this release of information was to ensure the full extent of the behavior between the Trump administration and Ukraine.
On Jan 30, 2020, however, the Senate voted against the addition of documents and testimony in the impeachment trial.
After 20 days of dissecting transcript and testimony, the senate was prepared to vote to determine if President Trump would be removed or acquitted.
According to Article 1, section 3, Clause 6, the Senate must have a two-thirds majority vote to remove an official from office. The vote on Feb. 5 was completely partisan on both charges, except for Mitt Romney.
Many US citizens across the nation watching the trial expected the partisan results.
“I was not surprised by how partisan that vote was,” Leftwich said. “While politics, in general, tend to be very polarized, Trump’s impeachment is something that has a lot of pros and cons outside of removing Trump from office.”
The Republican senator who represents Utah voted against Trump on the charge of abuse of power. Romney is the first senator in his to vote against an affiliated in the same political party.
“I was not surprised by Mitt Romney’s vote against President Trump because he has been known to be a person who is not scared to stand for what he believes in,” Devine said.
Just one day before President Trump was acquitted, he delivered a State of the Union Address. Due to the situation at hand, several actions showed the national audience political tensions were high.
It all began before the State of the Union began, when Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi changed the traditional announcement of the President. Instead of saying, “Members of Congress, I have the high privilege and distinct honor of presenting to you the President of the United State,” Pelosi said, “Members of Congress, the President of the United States.”
After he is announced, President Trump approaches the podium and gives copies of his speech to both Vice President Mike Pence and Pelosi. He did not shake hands with either of them, despite Pelosi’s attempt. President Trump and Madame Speaker Pelosi have not directly spoken since October.
The President’s centered his address around the state of the economy, health care, foreign policy, immigration, and his impeachment. President Trump also had several guests he presented throughout his address. One of his guests was conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh, who was recently diagnosed with lung cancer. Limbaugh was surprised with a Presidential Medal of Freedom, presented by First Lady Melania Trump.
It was the end of the speech, however, that most news reporters spoke about. As the audience began their applause, the nation saw Madame Speaker Pelosi ripping up the State of the Union Address given to her earlier. She was seen pre-ripping sections of the address before the speech was over.
Madame Speaker Pelosi was asked why she ripped up the speech by many reporters.
“I felt it was the courteous thing to do, considering the alternatives,” Pelosi said.
There was a shared sentiment across the nation, regardless of differences in political parties, about the actions of both Pelosi and Trump.
“When Nancy Pelosi ripped the papers, I knew my Twitter would be blowing up,” Devine said. “To no surprise, top trending on my Twitter was that Pelosi ripped the State of the Union. It definitely took away from the speech itself.”
Leftwich also felt that both officials used their position to make their feelings clear.
“Overall, I did find both Pelosi’s and Trump’s actions as childish. It seemed their intent was more of a way of sending a message than actually trying to come to a collective conclusion,” Leftwich said.
Americans feel something has got to give in the political world. Many feel both the left and right have lost civility in the presence of debate and settling differences.
“Both political parties have very little respect for each other which leads to mostly reverberating the same insults at each other rather than focusing on the issues,” Devine said.
The lack of respect that has been shown by the nation’s representatives often makes US citizens feel as though they are trapped in their political parties.
“I think people should freely be able to believe in what they believe in and people in the government should be able to work together efficiently even if they have different views,” Devine said.