NOVEMBER 12, 2016
Saturday Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net
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POLITICS 10 Who won’t accept America’s election result now? • • • • • •
Exams postponed in universities over anguish of students, violent protests break out across streets Plot to impeach President Trump has already begun Thousands of people are calling for Donald Trump to be impeached Professors say he could be removed over claims of sexual abuse, fraud One of the petitions to contest presidency has amassed 13,322 signatures Online searches for ‘How to impeach a president’ surged after the result
It is just a few days since Donald Trump was elected President - but thousands of furious liberals are already plotting ways to remove him from office. Within hours of the Republican’s unexpected win over Hillary Clinton, people were calling for him to be impeached over claims of sexual abuse, fraud and racketeering. Online searches for ‘How to impeach a president’ surged hours after the result, with the question seeing a 4,850 per cent rise on Google. One of the seven petitions to contest his presidency amassed more than 13,322 signatures in a matter of hours as furious protests across the United States intensified. A number of professors have thrown their weight behind the movement, saying there is a ‘strong case’ to impeach Trump and stop him from taking the top job. Speaking on Newsnight on Wednesday, English historian Simon Schama said: “It is not a moment for calm, it is a moment for contesting what seems to be a very dangerous point in American history. “George Washington warned against despotism and that’s what we’re facing.’
University of Utah Law professor, Christopher Peterson, said he found evidence to charge Trump with fraud and racketeering - felonies within state and federal law. He claimed that Trump University was unaccredited and taught students getrich-quick schemes. Trump is set to go on trial in three weeks over his now-defunct Trump University, potentially taking the witness stand weeks before his inauguration. The lawsuit, filed in 2010, claims Trump University gave seminars across the country that were like infomercials, pressuring people to spend $35,000 for mentorships. In a 23-page article, Professor Peterson laid out why Congress should impeach Trump over these claims. “In the United States, it is illegal for businesses to use false statements to convince consumers to purchase their services,” Mr Peterson said. “The evidence indicates that Trump University used a systemic pattern of fraudulent representations to trick thousands of families into investing in a program that can be argued was a sham. “Fraud and racketeering are serious
crimes that legally rise to the level of impeachable acts.” Impeachment is where a formal accusation of serious wrongdoing is lobbied against a sitting president or any other senior US official. The US Constitution states that the House of Representatives can vote to impeach and kick an official out of office, but it’s the Senate that actually tries the case. ‘The President, Vice President, and all civil officers of the United States’ who may be impeached and removed only for ‘treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanours’, reads the act. Thousands marched through downtown Boston on Wednesday night, waving signs and chanting anti-Trump slogans to protest the election. The crowd held signs that read ‘Love Trumps Hate,’ ‘Trump is racism,’ and ‘Impeach Trump.’ In her speech to concede defeat on Wednesday, Clinton told her supporters to accept the shock result - despite winning the popular vote. Flanked by her husband Bill and daughter Chelsea, she said: “Donald Trump is going to be our president. We owe him an
open mind and the chance to lead.” At one point in Trump’s campaign he said he could reject the result of the election if he lost to Clinton. Speaking during the final televised debate, Mr Trump, who has previously said the election has been rigged against him, raised the possibility he could launch a challenge to the results. Asked directly if he would accept the results, Mr Trump said: “I will look at it at the time, what I’ve seen is so bad.” Meanwhile, violence has broken out at anti-Trump rallies across America overnight as tens of thousands marched against the President-elect before angry mobs attacked police, started fires and shut down highways. The streets of downtown Oakland in California were choked with smoke Thursday as police launched tear gas and protesters lit fires, in what became by some distance the most violent of the many protests against the election of Donald Trump. More than 6,000 protesters were seen on the streets of Oakland with an initially peaceful march down a cop-lined street CONTINUED ON PAGE 11