The debate of impeachment

Photo via Wikimedia Commons under Creative Commons license.

Nancy Pelosi stands up against Trump during an office meeting. Pelosi leads the charge against Trump. The debate is over the Ukraine scandal.

Brantley Jenkins, Columns Editor

The President is under fire once again. Democrats are attempting to remove President Trump from the White House. Impeachment, the forced removal of the president, seems imminent when viewed from the Democratic side, but the Republican side is intent on keeping the president in office. President Trump does not seem to be worried about losing his place in command. 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democratic representative from California, is leading the charge against Trump’s office. She is pressing for President Trump to be removed from power. The House is investigating into the Ukraine scandal and calling it an official impeachment inquiry. The Ukraine scandal involves Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, and a Ukrainian gas firm, Burisma Holdings. The firm holds many drills and plans to open 21 new drills but has a very low reputation in Ukraine. Recently, Pelosi has been delaying the vote on whether or not to impeach the president in an attempt to gain more votes from the hearings and inquiries. The House of Representatives has called in many people to testify including, Lt. Co. Alexander Vindman, George Kent, and Tim Morrison. Nothing major has happened behind the doors of testimony.

If the vote results in removing President Trump from office, Vice President Mike Pence would become the next president. However, this is extremely hard to do. The House of Representatives is controlled by Democrats, meaning the House would vote to impeach the president. The House does not have the final say; the Senate would need a two-thirds vote to impeach the president. Of the 100 seats, 53 are controlled by Republicans meaning that at least 20 Republicans would have to vote against the President. 

Students at South have their own opinions about the impeachment of the president. Senior Giles Cooke* said that he does not believe President Trump will be impeached. He said: “I don’t think it will happen, and it’s kind of useless at this point in time, especially with all the primaries about to start.” If it were to happen, Cooke would be against Trump’s removal as he does not believe there is a solid reason for impeachment. 

On the opposite side is the president of South’s High School Democrats of America club, junior Katy Gates, who is completely in favor of the impeachment. She believes there is sufficient evidence to constitute an investigation. She also thinks that “there is a low chance it’ll happen thanks to the Republicans in Congress,” meaning that Trump will most likely remain in office. Gates also believes that the Democratic party should not be investing all of the time and resources into the investigation as they are, but rather focus more on winning the 2020 election. Gates wishes for Trump’s removal through the upcoming election instead.

One of South’s sophomores, Prajwal Mohan Kumar, wants the impeachment to go through. When asked about the potential impeachment, Mohan said: “Trump being impeached will finally stop all the hate on the government, possibly the next president could solve immigration issues.”

He does not see immigration as an issue requiring all of our government’s attention; he sees many more pressing issues such as climate change requiring attention. Mohan hopes that if Trump is impeached, the next president will focus on more pressing matters. 

Another student, freshman Aastha Mishra, believes that the impeachment will not happen. She believes it is too late in the president’s term for him to be impeached. Mishra strongly doubts that the president will lose power. 

Students at South want Trump removed because they view his presidency as unhelpful to our nation. Many students of our generation hope for the president to be impeached, but they all believe that it will not happen. In a world of politics, there will always be an opposing side, those that support and those that belittle. 

The Livestream of Trump’s impeachment hearing was the number one trending video on YouTube. The Washington Post has a live update website, click here to read.

 

*Name changed for anonymity