By Ben Schiffman
Two years into Donald Trump’s first term as president, the question of impeachment is no longer unsubstantiated. According to legal interpretation of the constitution, and precedent, Trump’s actions in and outside of the office of the presidency of the United States would justify impeachment by the House of Representatives. The framers of the constitution designed the mechanism of impeachment to be a political duty, pertaining to political offenses, leaving the criminal offenses to be brought by the executive and decided by the judiciary. Similarly, the framers left the only punishment for impeachment, both for the defendant and for the jurors, the elected officials of the house and senate, strictly political. Though Trump’s impeachment is justified and would be proper to preserve the office of the presidency, the political consequence of those in favor is all but ensuring he completes his term.
Donald Trump’s actions before, during and after his election to the presidency are well over the threshold for impeachment. Whether or not it is proven that he committed crimes as the president, it is not necessary for an official to break the law in order to be impeached. Interpretations in both houses of congress agree on this point, as impeachment is meant to combat behavior that violates an officer’s duty to their country (Cole and Garvey 7). At this point, the president’s involvement in many criminal schemes, as well as shady business practices for decades before he was president would have disqualified him in the eyes of the american people, however this was not the case. It is the conspiracies involving his election, The prospect of him using his office to benefit his business, and his now obvious willingness to put his feelings in front of the nation’s needs that should disqualify him from office.
A powerful example of an impeachable offense is obstruction of justice, which happened to be the grounds of the second article of impeachment against president Bill Clinton.Trump’s relationship with Russia is still relatively unknown. Even so, his closest allies and staffers throughout his campaign and presidency have been convicted of having these improper relationships with the hostile foreign power of Russia. In addition, he attempted to obstruct both the american people, and investigators from knowing the truth about these misdeeds. In many obvious attempts to obstruct justice, the president has threatened witnesses via twitter, and through his lawyer Rudy Giuliani, intervened in FBI investigations of himself and his aides, and publicly lied and questioned the validity of the investigations into the crimes muddying his presidency. This view of the president’s actions is not limited to a small group of his opponents either, 13% more people believe his campaign coordinated with the Russians, and only 30% of citizens believe he has properly handled the investigation of these crimes (Blanton). He can’t be convicted of any crime related to this conspiracy as the president, according to the justice department’s interpretation of the constitution. The duty to seek justice lies with congress through the process of impeachment.
With such an extensive list of justifiably impeachable offenses it would seem the house of representatives would be obligated to at the least begin the process of impeachment, and begin to investigate the president more closely. So why hasn’t Trump been impeached? The reasoning appears to be pretty simple — they care more about their reelection chances than performing their constitutional duty by preserving the office of the presidency. Members of both parties represent Trump’s voters, and to impeach the president would be to invalidate their own voters votes. This could massively damage public opinion of any representatives that vote to impeach or remove the president.
The flaw with this argument is simple, this government is a government of the people, by the people and for the people. The founders wanted the people’s input into impeachment, and even when a president can be impeached, the people should be the true jury as to what a president must do to be removed from office. The overarchingly accepted interpretation of Article II: Section 4 of the constitution is pretty clear, what is deserving of impeachment is up to the elected officials of congress, who ultimately represent the people.
To impeach and remove a president would be to reverse a nationwide election, reflecting the will of the people. Donald Trump could justifiably be removed from office, however the consequences for those in favor, especially Republicans, would be massive. Representatives know the people are not in favor of impeaching the president, at least not at this point, and they are not willing to reverse an election against the will of the people, even when it might be necessary to keep the country moving. It’s not up to them who the president is, and it would be too big a step to change the people’s decision without their permission.
