Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced a formal impeachment inquiry into President Trump on Tuesday evening — a watershed event that might not ultimately lead to the president’s impeachment, but starts a process that could end up there says Nicholas Fandos in the New York Times.
“This flagrant disregard for the law cannot stand,” seven first-term members of Congress from swing districts wrote in an op-ed for the Washington Post on Monday night, later adding: “If these allegations are true, we believe these actions represent an impeachable offense,” reported the Washington Post
“There is now an obvious and immediate pragmatic upside to impeachment: stopping an ongoing abuse of presidential power that could undermine the integrity of the 2020 election.”
Speaker Pelosi had resisted the calls for impeachment for long, ever since the the Mueller report on Russian involvement in the 2016 elections was released. However, after a closed-door meeting with her party colleagues on Tuesday, she said that “the president must be held accountable. No one is above the law”.
The break-out of a full-blown controversy over impeachment proceedings against US president Donald Trump deepened on September 25 as he was compelled to release a transcript, reportedly of his conversation with Ukrainian president Volodymyer Zelenskiy. The conversation was the subject of a probe announced by Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the US House of Representatives.
The inquiry is based on a complaint against the president by a whistleblower, who alleged that Trump tried to persuade Zelenskiy to open an investigation against Joe Biden, the Democratic front-runner for 2020 presidential elections, which would include his son as well. Trump has been accused of a “quid pro quo”, wherein he withheld USD 400 million in aid to Ukraine, to create pressure on the country’s government.
The transcript is not believed to be verbatim. In the transcript, Trump asks Zelenskiy to look into the matter of Biden and also work closely with his personal lawyer, former New York mayor, Rudy Giuliani. Trump has long been alleging that Joe Biden, who was the vice-president during Obama’s administration, used his position to stop an inquiry against his son in Ukraine.Many Democrats were quick to claim that the transcript was the “smoking gun” needed to prove Trump’s guilt.
While admitting that he had withheld the financial aid to Ukraine, Trump has denied using his position to attempt to influence the Ukrainian president to open an investigation against Biden’s son. The inquiry announced by Pelosi is intended to establish if Trump is complicit in inviting foreign interference into the US election. According to her, Trump’s actions have not only endangered national security, but also violated the US constitution.
Trump referred to the impeachment announcement as “witch-hunt garbage” and “presidential harassment” by the Democrats. He has also ordered the release of the transcripts of his conversation with Zelenskiy.
- Now we need more: how much information will be released about the complaint. Trump said he’d release the transcript of his call with Ukranian leader. House Democrats are demanding to see the full whistleblower complaint, according to National Public Radion (NPR)
- The Judiciary Committee was already working on an impeachment investigation, but it wasn’t a formal impeachment inquiry.
The Process of Impeachment
The inquiry to impeach the president will be conducted by the House Judiciary Committee after a probable vote in the House, where a simple majority is sufficient to formally bring charges against Trump. Once the resolution, or the ‘Articles of Impeachment’ as it is officially known, is passed by the House, it will be transferred to the Senate, where the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court presides over the proceedings, with Senate members acting as jury and the House as prosecutor. At the end of the proceedings, if the Senate passes the resolution with a two-thirds majority, the president stands impeached.
Have either of the two previous impeachment proceedings against former US presidents have been successful? No.
The first one, against Andrew Johnson in 1868, and the second against Bill Clinton in 1998, both, failed to pass in the Senate. In another instance, Richard Nixon had resigned from his post before the impeachment resolution was brought to the House in 1974.
Meanwhile, in the current US Congress, the Democrats hold a majority in the House of Representatives, where the impeachment process begins. Out of the 435 members, 235 belong to the Democratic party, whereas Republicans have only 199 members. However, in the upper house or the Senate, the Republicans have 53 seats against 45 of the Democrats and 2 Independents. Even if all the Democrats and Independents vote together, which they usually do, the impeachment motion will not be accepted until at least 20 Republicans also vote along with them. This today seems like an unlikely if not impossible scenario.
Political Ramifications
Though impeachment is a legitimate process for the removal of the president, it is rarely invoked. The chances of there being a backlash if it fails is serious, particularly in an election year. In 1998, the Republicans lost the congressional election after they instigated impeachment procedures against the then-president Bill Clinton. In the US, the President is otherwise all-powerful and cannot be removed from the post in any other way.
The Democrats have accused Trump on several counts in the past: he has been accused of seeking Russian help during the 2016 elections.
Will it back fire this time? The initial impact of the announcement could be worrying for Democrats: the Trump campaign raised close to a quarter of a million dollars within a few minutes of the announcement of the inquiry. There are some reports in the media that indicate not too much popular support for the impeachment among the voters.