Trump impeached: now what?

Process now moves to the Senate for trial

Donald Trump now has the stain of impeachment on his legacy.

The Republican president was impeached Wednesday by the Democrat-controlled United States House of Representatives, for abuse of power and obstructing Congress.

The impeachment process now moves to the Senate for trial, beginning in January. If convicted, Trump would be removed from office – but acquittal is most likely, since the Republicans have a Senate majority.

Geoffrey Booth, who has taught politics at Georgian College for more than 20 years, says the impeachment process matters even if Trump isn’t ousted.

“We’ve known what the outcome is going to be for three months, right, but it doesn’t mean that this process isn’t important,” he said. “It’s kind of truth’s last stand in a way because there’s very little dispute among even Trump supporters that he in fact did do what he did. There’s irrefutable evidence, it’s there.”

The House vote Wednesday evening was along party lines, with the abuse of power article passing 230-197, and obstructing Congress by 229-198.

“But the fact that the teams (Democrats, Republicans) are still lining up against one another really puts truth on trial,” Booth said. “If this ultimately winds up the way we figure it’s going to, where Republicans just don’t support the (Trump’s) removal in the Senate, really what we’ve lost is the ability to value the truth.”

Booth says impeaching Trump in the House, but then acquitting him in the Senate, will also make American question these institutions.

“What is it going to say about whether or not we can trust these anymore?” he asked, “because if we can’t trust places like Congress and the courts to act apart from the political establishment, then we don’t have a democracy anymore.” 

Booth said he was not surprised Trump attended a rally Wednesday evening, while he was being impeached, and seemed to shrug off the House proceedings.

“Trump doesn’t care. That has no value for him,” Booth said. “He’s not going to lose any support and I think that shows in the polls. The polls have basically been split down the middle, more or less. The needle has moved very little.

“It’s almost like Donald Trump knows it’s reality TV and he’s just playing this like reality TV,” he said, “and there are enough people in the United States who will accept that version of the truth, whether it’s true or not.”

Of course, it doesn’t hurt Trump that the American economy is doing well.

Booth says another question surrounding Trump’s impeachment is what does it mean, down the road.

“Was that the beginning of the end, there was no more truth after that,” he said, “or that was the kick in the pants that the American public needed to sort of be shocked back to understanding what’s at stake here. Will this create some kind of awareness from a larger group of Americans about what’s at stake.

“When you elect a person like Donald Trump, what do you expect? The wreckage that he leaves behind, in terms of the mistrust of institutions, I think that’s the more perilous possibility, longer-term.”

Trump faced two articles of impeachment in the House.

Abuse of power, in the context of impeachment, means using the powers of the U.S. presidency for personal gain. It’s not specifically listed as an impeachable offence in the American Constitution but is thought to be covered in ’treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanours’ – for which a president can be removed for office.

Trump is accused of abusing his power during a July 25, 2019 phone call to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The U.S. president asked for a favour – investigate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter for corruption while withholding nearly $400 million in American military aid needed to counter Russian aggression.

The obstructing Congress charge was levelled because Trump stonewalled the House impeachment inquiry, by refusing to provide documents to congressional investigators and instructing top advisors and government officials to ignore and refuse to testify. 

The White House said the Constitution doesn’t require senior presidential advisers to testimony before Congress. But a judge rejected that argument Nov. 25, 2019.

And contempt of Congress is a misdemeanour crime under U.S. law, which defines the offence as wilfully failing to provide testimony or documents to Congress.

Bill Clinton was the last U.S. president impeached by the House, in 1998, but as with President Andrew Johnson in 1868, Clinton was acquitted in the Senate.

Clinton was impeached for perjury (lying) in his grand jury testimony and obstructing justice in his dealings with various, potential witnesses, all relating to the Monica Lewinsky affair.

Johnson was impeached for his violation of the Tenure of Office Act, which barred the president from removing cabinet officials appointed during his term of office without the Senate’s consent. 

President Richard Nixon resigned from office in 1974. Late that July, the House Judiciary Committee passed three articles of impeachment against Nixon – obstruction of justice, abuse of power and defiance of subpoenas. All related, in whole or in part, to the Watergate scandal.

 When it became apparent he would be impeached in the House, and convicted by the Senate, Nixon resigned the presidency Aug. 9, 1974. President Gerald Ford pardoned Nixon a month later.

So Donald Trump becomes the third American president to be impeached.

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