Trump Impeachment and the House of Representatives and the Senate
Part A. Annotated Bibliography
Reich, Robert. (2019). Mitch McConnell is destroying the Senate – and the American government.
This is an article that gives insight about the failures of Mitch McConnell as the majority leader of the United States Senate. The article delves into the several occasions that McConnell has acted contrary to the constitution in hindering the passing of important legislation brought from the House of Representatives. Similarly, the article also shows the instances in which McConnell has led the Senate into passing Donald Trump’s nominees without necessarily following due process. Coincidentally, the article shows that McConnell also was responsible for the blocking of Obama’s Nominees just because of he, together with other Senate Republicans, intended to ensure that they made President Obama a one-term president in the United States. This is an important article because it offers the role that is played by both the Senate as the upper House. The politics that come into play are an important show of how Impeachments can be hindered even when there is clear illegality.
History.com Editors. (2020). President Donald Trump impeached.
The article details the Impeachment of the United States President Donald Trump, by the House of Representatives. According to this article, the House of Representatives had launched investigations into the conduct of President Donald Trump, business dealings, and his campaign ties to the Russian hackers who targeted Hillary Clinton in the run-up to the election in which Donald Trump won despite losing the popular vote. While on the verge of giving up with their efforts, which were not convincing Nancy Pelosi to initiate Impeachment, they found a perfect opportunity in reports about a whistleblower who had evidence about the dealings with the Ukrainian President. The article’s contents are important because they detail the process and the outcome of the Impeachment in both the House of Representatives and the Senate led by majority Mitch McConnell.
McCarthy, Tom. (2020). Trump impeachment: President acquitted on both articles
In this article, the author notes that President Donald Trump is the third President in the United States history to be impeached by the House of Representatives and then acquitted in the Senate trial. The article shows the politics that come into play in the Impeachment process with most legislators opting to vote along party lines. For instance, the House of Representatives which is made up of a majority of Democrats votes for the Impeachment of President Donald Trump based on the abuse of power and obstruction of the Congress. The Senate which is made up of a majority of Republicans to vote against the two articles. This article shows politics and party loyalty take precedence in both houses and this is an impediment to the practice of democracy in the United States legislative Houses.
Beauchamp, Zack. (2019). The Constitution was not built for this: Republicans’ vote against Trump’s Impeachment reveals a broken system–and democracy at real risk of failure.
The author of this article delves into the Senate vote that exonerated President Donald Trump from Impeachment. From the article, one is able to see the clear polarization in politics that goes against the spirit of democracy. The author notes that the decision by the Republicans to exonerate Trump from an obvious impeachment was a failure by the legislators and driven by party loyalty as opposed to the respect for the constitution. The author notes that it is obvious that the law was broken and there was a clear violation of the United States constitution to prompt an impeachment. However, the Republicans decided to violate the constitution and save Trump. The article is important because it shows the clear inadequacy of legislators in the Senate to carry out their mandate.
Part B. The Donald Trump Impeachment
The founding fathers of the United States had a good vision for the nation. In their wisdom, they envisioned a situation where there will be a president who would try to behave in a manner that goes against the spirit of democracy. For that reason, they decided, it was necessary, to create a system, with a genuine, balance of Powers, between the three branches of government, the Executive, Legislative, and Judiciary (Beauchamp, 2019). They created the Impeachment process for such offences as high crimes and misdemeanors. Some of the specific offences that they wanted considered include bribery and foreign influences. This paper enumerates the role that the House of Representatives and the Senate played in the Donald Trump Impeachment trial process.
Impeachment of the President in the United States is usually handled by select committees who forward their findings to the Judiciary Committee (Beauchamp, 2019). The Judiciary committee comes up with the articles of Impeachment, which shows the rationale behind the procession of the proceeding. The Judiciary Committee refers the matter to the full House where the House of Representatives under the leadership of the Speaker considers the allegations and carry out a vote for or against the Impeachment (Beauchamp, 2019). If the House of Representatives impeach the President, the matter is referred to the Senate. The Senate holds a trial under the leadership of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. In order to convict, and remove, two – thirds, of these individuals, must vote to remove. Since this ends up, potentially, being a political process, instead of a judicial one, the innocence or guilt, of the individual, may, potentially, not be determined.
President Donald Trump faced serious charges of colluding with a foreign country, abuse of power and obstruction of Congress (McCarthy, 2020). The Impeachment process was made possible after the emergence of a whistleblower who complain about a phone call between Trump and the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The complaint that was made by the whistleblower was also corroborated by the Ukrainian Ambassador who confirmed that President Donald Trump had threatened to withhold any foreign aid until the Ukrainian President promised to carry out an investigation on Hunter Biden who is the son to the United States Presidential aspirant, Joe Biden, for suspicious transactions in Ukraine (History.com Editors, 2020). Although the executive denied any wrongdoing, the House of Representatives found the President guilty.
It is worth to note that House of Representatives is made up of a majority of Democrats. The Impeachment of the President at the House of Representatives was along party lines with 230 in favor and 197 (McCarthy, 2020). At the Senate, the politics of parties was also evident led by the Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell. The Senate which is made up of largely Republicans, fell short of impeaching President Trump with 52-48 voting for the abuse of power claims and 53-47 voting for the obstruction of Congress claims (McCarthy, 2020). Since a two-thirds majority of 67 senators was required for the Impeachment and subsequent removal of President Donald Trump, the Impeachment failed in the Senate.
The Senate as a House has not played its role in an honest manner throughout the Donald Trump Presidency. The Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell has made sure that no meaningful legislation that comes from the House of Representatives succeeds at the Senate (Reich, 2019). The war between the Senate and the House of Representatives has been ongoing since 2018 after the election brought Democrats into power in the House of Representatives. One of the bills that the House of Representatives passed was one that was meant to protect national and local elections from foreign interference (Reich, 2019). Unfortunately, the efforts by the Democrats have counted for nothing because the Senate majority leader’s failure to act upon the bill. Numerous bills that are bipartisan and would clearly benefit the nation still languish as McConnell and other Republicans accuse the House Democrats of doing nothing but investigate and impeach.
The fact that the impeachment process would not succeed at the Senate was very clear from the start. McConnell announced that the President’s defense and the position of Senate Republicans would be coordinated. In short, the jury would conspire with the defendant to ensure acquittal no matter what the evidence showed (Beauchamp, 2019). At no point during the trial in the Senate did McConnell negotiate procedures with Democratic leaders to ensure responsible handling of the dangers to national security and constitutional violations exposed in the House impeachment inquiries (Beauchamp, 2019). Instead, McConnell openly acknowledged that key procedural decisions were delayed until the person personally approved them on trial.The power plays between the House of Representatives, and the Senate has denied the United States some form of democracy and transparency in the way that different legislations that are meant to help the country are handled (Beauchamp, 2019). The partnership of Mitch McConnell who betrayed the Senate and the nation to support immoral, illegal, and dangerous actions of President Donald Trump, who does not care about the security of the nation he is leading is a disgrace to the position he holds as a Senator who swore to protect the constitution of the United States.
The obstruction of justice and bribery are specifically stated, in the United States Constitution, as causes and reasons to impeach! Trying to divert attention, distorting what happened, and questioning, either the process, or the source (the whistleblower), has nothing to do with guilt or innocence, nor does proclaiming, since it wasn’t successful, there was no harm, done! The United States legislators should be more concerned about the meaning of the process to the future of the United States. The legislators should think about the behavior that is bound to be exhibited by future leaders. The United States produces leaders of the free world. Therefore, it is the duty of the President as the leader of the free world to lead at the front as an icon of transparency and democracy for all other nations to emulate.
References
Beauchamp, Zack. (2019). The Constitution was not built for this: Republicans’ vote against Trump’s Impeachment reveals a broken system — and a democracy at real risk of failure. Retrieve April 30, 2020, fromhttps://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/12/18/21028098/trump-impeached-vote-republicans-democracy-broken-system
History.com Editors. (2020). President Donald Trump impeached. Retrieved April 30, 2020, from https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/president-trump-impeached-house-of-representatives
McCarthy, Tom. (2020). Trump impeachment: President acquitted on both articles Retrieved April 30, 2020, fromhttps://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/feb/05/donald-trump-acquitted-senate-impeachment-trial
Reich, Robert. (2019). Mitch McConnell is destroying the Senate – and the American government. Retrieved April 30, 2020, from https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/apr/06/mitch-mcconnell-senate-republicans-donald-trump-judges