Trump’s Impeachment

I’M NOT ORANGE, I’M-PEACH! WHY TRUMP IMPEACHMENT PROMISES BETTER FUTURE FOR AMERICA

EZRA ADAMSKI Lifestyles Editor

President Trump, even before his bid as commander-in-chief, was racked with scandals. From crooked business practices to openly admitting to assaulting women to confirmed housing discrimination on the basis of race, among countless other accusations and schemes, Mr. Trump’s pre-political life was dogged with controversy after controversy. These issues have been brought up time and time again throughout his presidency, but now, a much larger, more pressing matter has taken the spotlight. Early calls for impeachment can be traced back to the summer of 2017, when two Democratic representatives, Brad Sherman of California and Al Green of Texas, filed an article of impeachment for obstruction of justice. This was two months after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey. The House, being majority Republican at the time, ignored this; however, after the 2018 midterms led the Democrats to gain control in the House, talk of impeachment became more serious. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi originally sought to tamp the calls for impeachment, claiming they were divisive. After the Mueller Report was released (re: no collusion with Russia but no exoneration that Trump and Co. obstructed the probe) on April 18 of 2019, Democrats received further ammunition with which to argue for impeachment. On July 25, 2019, the notorious Ukraine call was made. Trump asked Volodymyr Zelensky if he could “...do us a favor”; in other words, demand that he look into the Biden family’s activities in the region or he would not send the country aid. This blatant misuse of power wasn’t known until an anonymous whistleblower filed a complaint with the Senate and House intelligence committees on August 12. A little over a month later, Pelosi announced the start of a formal impeachment inquiry, and in November, public impeachment hearings began. On December 18, President Trump was impeached by the House. Trump’s tenure in the White House can be best described as tumultuous. To be more precise, it is all infuriating, shameful, and abysmal. For marginalized groups – LGBT people, people of color, immigrants, women, and people with disabilities - it is terrifying. The potential for the removal of such a president, though it’s embarrassing to call him such, offers a glimmer of hope. It provides the opportunity for a man, who has spent his life dodging, sneaking, and conniving his way out of accountability, to

EDITORIAL

face exact prosecution. A common concern, and argument against impeachment, is that it may cause the country instability, particularly concerning economics. However, impeachment is not an economic issue. Even if it were, a look at President Clinton’s impeachment shows not only a rise in the stock market during his trial, but a growing consumer confidence as well, although it’s hard to connect market movement to impeachment hearings in the first place. If the concern is political, then right now, it is particularly justified. After tensions escalated due to Iranian-led violence in Iraq, Trump took the most extreme course of action possible by ordering a drone strike to kill Qassim Soleimani. This was, supposedly, to prevent a war as opposed to starting one. But a quick look at America’s relationship with Iran, and the Middle East at large, over the past several decades reveals that an action as volatile as this could easily trigger another large-scale conflict. After nearly 60 people were trampled to death at Soleimani’s funeral, it’s clear that Trump’s hawkish route was, at best, ill-informed and potentially catastrophic. This man - who is absolutely unfit to be president in nearly every regard - has pushed ridiculous and occasionally dangerous conspiracy theories on his bloated Twitter account. He questioned Barack Obama’s citizenship, despite the latter providing his decidedly American birth certificate. (Speaking of official documents, remember Trump’s promise to release his tax returns? Hm.) He pens incoherent tweets about the falsified Deep State and a so-called white genocide, both theories that are favorites of his “very fine” Neo-Nazi supporters. He alienates entire communities of people in a single 280-word rant or awkward press conference. And, while a president being “mean” doesn’t make them unfit to be president, the rhetoric Trump spews only adds fuel to his largely white base and impacts politics globally. Other countries’ perception of us and our leader is shaky at best, according to the Pew Research Center, and the Western European voice in the survey said that America has stopped respecting the individual liberties of its people. This type of behavior would not be tolerated coming from any other leader. It is crude, uninformed, and unprecedented, or, as our president would say, unpresidented.

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