The Impeachment Trial of Donald Trump
Chase Bridges, Staff Writer
Photo courtesy of Unsplash.com.
The President of the United States, Donald Trump faced something that not many presidents have gone through in their terms. The highly controversial businessman faced impeachment after the House of Representatives approved articles of impeachment on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. These are very serious charges, and not to be taken lightly. Donald Trump was acquitted on these two counts on February 5, 2020. With the whole case behind us now, I spoke to North Greenville senior and political enthusiast Joshua Jordan about his personal thoughts on the entire trial.
Joshua Jordan kept his opinions as fact-based as possible when asked the simple question of, did the president commit a crime? “It’s clear to me that the president abused his power. He threatened to withhold military aid from Ukraine if they did not provide him with info on Joe Biden which would benefit him politically.” Jordan answered. A very simple answer that truly breaks through all of the complicated politics and makes it clear what happened.
Jordan considers himself an Independent but speaks out on how the Republican Party handled the situation. “The fact that Republicans are calling this a “witch-hunt” and are refusing to take this seriously is appalling and makes the Democrats appear petulant and partisan.” In layman’s terms, he feels that by not taking this trial seriously, the general public will begin to lean towards the Democratic Party.
During the trial, Senator Mitt Romney was the only Republican who voted against Donald Trump. This sparked tons of conversations online about what that truly means. Jordan gave his own opinion on Romney’s vote. “I have a great deal of respect for Mitt Romney for voting in favor of one of the articles of impeachment. He had absolutely nothing to gain and everything to lose by doing so. Such integrity is missing in Washington.” Jordan spoke. Joshua Jordan definitely cares about the rules and regulations of the United States Government being taken seriously. No matter who it is that breaks the law, he feels that they should be held accountable. Especially the president.
The final vote rang in as neither count received the required sixty-seven votes to convict the president on either charge. On the charge of abuse of power forty-eight senators voted for conviction while Fifty-Two senators voted for the acquittal of Donald Trump. On obstruction of congress, forty-seven senators voted for conviction and fifty-three senators voted to acquit.
With the trial being over, many Americans feel as though everything should just move on. However, there are still a whole lot of citizens who disagree with the acquittal of Donald Trump. His first term is coming to an end, and with the election coming up, it will be very interesting to see how this impeachment trial affects his re-election campaign.
