President Trump’s Impeachment and a Spotlight on Some Shady Presidents
By Brahmjot Kaur
The following article was printed in the February 2020 edition of The Campus.
With President’s Day approaching on February 17th, President Donald J. Trump is still in the hotseat. On December 18, 2019, the House of Representatives voted in favor of impeaching President Trump and moved to the Senate impeachment trials, where a vote will take place on his removal of office.
Donald Trump was accused of pressuring the Ukrainianpresident, Volodymyr Zelensky, to find incriminating information on HunterBiden, Joe Biden’s son. It is important to note, Hunter Biden worked for aUkrainian company and Joe Biden is one of the top Democratic candidates for the2020 Presidential elections.
An anonymous intelligence official wrote a formal complaintas a whistleblower -- an employee who alleges wrongdoing by his or her employerof the sort that violates public law or tends to injure a considerable numberof people -- describing concerns about a phone call between Trump and Zelenskythat they overheard. A transcript of the phone call was released and did, infact, reflect the claims of the whistleblower.
The House of Representatives charged President Trump withtwo crimes: obstruction of Congress and abuse of powers. The vote was 230 to197, in favor of impeachment. Though Trump has been impeached, he will not beremoved from office unless the Senate chooses to convict the president. Itwould take two-thirds of the Senate’s vote to convict him and remove him fromoffice. If President Trump is not convicted, he could still run in the 2020election, but even if he is convicted, the Senate could still allow him to runif they choose to.
While Trump is the third President of the United States tobe impeached, both Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton were acquitted by theSenate, and Richard Nixon resigned before he could be impeached.
The Senate impeachment trials began on Thursday, January 16,when the impeachment managers -- Rep. Adam Schiff, Rep. Jerry Nadler, Rep. ZoeLofgren, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, Rep. Val Demings, Rep. Jason Crow, and Rep.Sylvia Garcia -- presented the articles of impeachment by reading them to theSenate. After a five-day recess, the Senate reconvened on January 21, whenopening arguments began. A few weeks into the trial, senators will vote onwhether to dismiss the trial then, or call witnesses and introduce newevidence. Finally, there will be closing arguments and the Senate will vote toeither deliberate privately with a simple majority, or vote publicly. The trialis set to conclude sometime in February.
While our House and Senate debate on our current president’simmediate shady shenanigans, it is time to look back at some of the shadiestpresidents of the United States.
- Richard MNixon: Nixon helped cover a break in into the DNC, where the intruderswiretapped phone lines and stole secret papers, an event which was famouslynicknamed the “Watergate Scandal.” Nixon resigned so that he could not beimpeached as he was definitely guilty of the crime.
- AndrewJackson: In 1830, Jackson ordered troops to kill large numbers of NativeAmericans and signed the Indian Removal Act, forcing over 46,000 NativeAmericans onto reservations, which is known as “The Trail of Tears.”
- AndrewJohnson: A white supremacist who stated that “this is a country for whitemen, and by God, as long as I am President, it shall be a government for whitemen.” Johnson was impeached because he attempted to remove the Secretary of Warwithout the Senate’s approval (A big no-no).
- CalvinCoolidge: Signed the Immigration Act of 1924 to limit immigrants allowedentry into the US, allowing some parts of Europe to have more immigrants thanothers. It was very restrictive to Italians, Slavic people, Greeks, Chinese,Japanese, and Spaniards.
- FranklinD. Roosevelt: Established Japanese-American internment camps in the UnitedStates through an executive order. According to the AAPF, over 120,000 peopleof Japanese descent were placed in internment camps following Pearl Harbor. Two-thirdsof the people interned were United States citizens.
- Harry S.Truman: Responsible for dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in1945, completely destroying the cities, as well as affecting the lives of thosewho dealt with the radiation from the aftermath of Truman’s reprehensibledecision.
- RonaldReagan: The Reagan Administration did not address the AIDs epidemic becausethey did not take it seriously in light of their homophobic values.
- George WBush: Invaded Iraq after 9/11 under false pretenses, with over 250,000people having died in the war.
- Donald JTrump: In 2018, Trump shut down the government because he demanded $5.7billion for his border wall even though the Senate Appropriations Committeeapproved $1.6 billion for him and there was immense bipartisan support. Heended up with less ($1.38 billion) than if he had agreed to the bipartisandeal. Trump also used his emergency authority to appropriate funds for a“policy priority” even though Congress specifically refused to. Trump alsosupported Turkey in invading Syria and attacking our Kurdish allies.
And on that note, happy President’s Day!