Jan. 16, 2020
By Anthony Paolazzi
Staff Writer
The House of Representatives voted on Jan. 15 to deliver two articles of impeachment to the Senate. This action follows the House’s Dec. 18 decision to approve two articles to impeach President Donald Trump. The first article is abuse of power, and the second is the obstruction of Congress.
Last month, only two Democrats opposed impeachment, and the Republicans were united in opposition against both articles of impeachment. Some moderate Republicans chose to vote “present,” which means they did not weigh in. For the article on abuse of power, the vote was 230 to 197 and for the obstruction of Congress, it was 229 to 198, thereby implicating Trump.
“The House of Representatives impeached him, and the Senate will then determine whether the evidence is sufficient enough to convict him. I have faith in our system.”
History teacher Mr. Marcus said this result was to be expected.
“I think it was inevitable simply because on partisan lines, it was going to unravel like that,” Marcus said. “Things are so divided that the one side that voted for the impeachment was going to get it to happen because they had the numbers on those who opposed.”
Marcus said he believes the charges were about more than just partisanship.
“The Democrats also had evidence that was enough for the charges against the president to be made,” Marcus said.
The impeachment process started on Sept. 24, 2019 when Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi launched a formal impeachment inquiry in an attempt to impeach Trump in response to the Trump Ukraine scandal.
INFOGRAPHIC BY ANTHONY PAOLAZZI
This infographic conducted on The Lighthouse Twitter account reflects the response of 46 people.
In this scandal, Trump and his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani pressed the Ukrainian government repeatedly starting around May 2019 to investigate Hunter Biden, the son of 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden. A whistleblower reported on Trump’s phone conversation about the incident. In response, Trump denied any wrongdoing and said to disregard the whistleblower’s report.
History teacher Mr. Clifford said he predicted that since the Democrats hold more seats than the Republicans in the House of Representatives, the impeachment would go through.
“According to a majority of the representatives of the United States, there is sufficient evidence to charge the president with obstruction of Congress and abuse of power,” Clifford said.
He said he has faith that the judicial process will correctly identify any wrongdoings.
“We have a system in place that will correctly determine if the president is guilty,” Clifford said. “The House of Representatives impeached him, and the Senate will then determine whether the evidence is sufficient enough to convict him. I have faith in our system.”
Junior Rashadul Quazi said he does not believe there is any conclusive evidence to impeach Trump.
“Trump is accused of withholding defense funds from Ukraine for dirt on a political opponent in a phone call,” Quazi said. “Without any tapes, [it] is all hearsay.”
The Senate impeachment trial is set to begin on Jan. 21. In order to remove the president from office, there needs to be a two-thirds majority vote.
The Republicans hold 53 seats in the Senate, whereas the Democrats hold 45 seats with two independents who caucus with them. Therefore, there are predictions that the Senate will not produce enough votes to remove Trump from office.
According to data reported by The Washington Post, out of the 100 members of the Senate, 37 members already said they will oppose impeachment, making the two-thirds requirement impossible to meet.
Quazi said he thinks Trump will not be convicted by the Senate.
“I don’t think there will be a two-thirds majority vote in the Senate, so I think he’ll remain in office,” said Quazi.
5 comments
