Donald Trump on the night of December 19 became the third president of the United States, who was impeached. On Wednesday, the House of Representatives officially charged him with two counts: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
The final decision to remove Trump will be made by the Senate, which is controlled by the Republicans, so the American president will remain in power. However, this historic step will seriously increase inter-party tension.
Impeachment made trump more popular among Americans
The U.S. House of Representatives voted to begin impeachment of the country’s president. In support of the relevant decision on the item “abuse of power” 230 deputies spoke out, against – 197. Under the item “obstruction to the investigation of the Congress” – 229, against – 198.
In anticipation of the vote, Trump, who is about to run for a second presidential term, has sharply criticized the Democrats on his Twitter page.
“Do you believe that today I will be impeached by radical leftists, idlers-democrats – and I did nothing wrong! This is an attack on America! A terrible situation. This should never be repeated with another president. Let’s pray!” He wrote a capsloc.
On the eve of Trump called the impeachment process “an illegal party attempted coup,” for which, in his opinion, the representative of the Democratic Party, Nancy Pelosi, who launched the procedure, and her associates “will be punished” in the November 2020 elections.
The impeachment procedure should then go through the Republican Party-controlled Senate, so the likelihood that senators will support impeachment is close to zero. In addition, none of the American presidents has yet been removed from office under this procedure.
The House of Representatives had previously indicted Andrew Jackson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998. However, the Senate voted to justify both and against their removal from office. Richard Nixon voluntarily resigned before the vote, he was accused of illegally listening to the campaign headquarters of the Democratic Party.
Last Monday, Congressional Democrats issued a 658-page indictment.
Trump is suspected of trying to force him to initiate an investigation against his likely rival in the upcoming elections, Joe Biden and his son Hunter, during a telephone conversation with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky.
As a lever of pressure, according to the prosecution, the American leader used Zelensky’s possible invitation to visit the United States and military assistance to Ukraine worth about $ 400 million, which was frozen on the eve of the conversation.
Democrats regard these allegations as a call to a foreign state to intervene in the US election process.
In addition, the Democrats considered obstructing the work of the House of Representatives that Trump forbade senior White House officials to answer legislative calls and speak at committee hearings as part of the impeachment process.
Republicans in Congress are about to begin consideration of impeachment in January 2020.
However, few doubt that they will justify the president. In the Republican Party, Trump’s support level does not fall below 90 percent.
His opponents need to get two-thirds of the Senate votes, but now the Democrats have only 47 legislators against 53.
Republicans, in turn, rallied around three points:
• the lack of evidence of crimes by the president,
• the use by the Democrats of the procedure as a political weapon, and
• the harmfulness of such attempts for the future of the United States.
There were also quite eccentric. Republican Barry Laudermilka said that “Pilate provided Jesus with more opportunities to defend himself than Democrats did to the president.”
And Republican Mike Kelly compared impeachment with the Japanese attack on an American military base at Pearl Harbor in 1941. Kelly said the impeachment process would be a new “day of shame,” as President Franklin Roosevelt used the wording to ask the Senate to declare war on Japan after Pearl Harbor.
It is also worth noting that Trump supports the American people. After starting the procedure, its popularity, according to Gallup, grew by six percent and amounted to 45 percent, while impeachment support, on the contrary, fell by the same six percent – 46 percent.
However, the Democratic Party says they have partially achieved their goal. As Congressman Ted Lew said at the hearing, “impeachment will be forever, he will follow him his whole life.”
“And the textbooks will say why he was impeached. People will know,” the democrat emphasized.
According to Reuters, the election of Trump split the United States, divided families and friends, and it became much more difficult for politicians in Washington to find compromises. In addition, they have to face other pressing challenges, such as the strengthening of China and climate change.
A vote on the impeachment procedure only intensified this split and led to even greater polarization of the parties.