Like many of my liberal peers, I have spent the last months, post-election, flirting with the idea of impeachment. In doing so I have found myself facing many questions: “Is Pence a better alternative?” “Will a push to impeach President Donald Trump P’00 turn independents away from the Democratic Party?” But, until recently, I believed that impeachment was not the right route. I was committed to respecting our American democratic system, and impeaching our political enemies seemed to undermine this. Thus, I didn’t think it was right to call for the impeachment of a democratically elected official, even if I considered his or her views to be despicable. Yes, Mr. Trump’s character clearly rendered him unfit for the presidency, and his poor judgment has led to loathsome policies, but that does not make him constitutionally impeachable.
It’s important to remember that we have a tradition of peaceful electoral transitions — going back to 1800 — of which our country should be proud. Moreover, to impeach Mr. Trump would likely further polarize his supporters, which would be a large step in the wrong direction. This being said, in recent days it has become increasingly clear that there are legitimate reasons to impeach Trump.
First, it’s important to understand what the Constitution says about impeachment and our history with it. The U.S Constitution grants the House of Representatives the sole power to impeach an official and makes the Senate the only court for impeachment trials. For Congress to impeach a president, he or she must be convicted of “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.” Only two presidents have been impeached by the House of Representatives: Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998, and both were subsequently acquitted by the Senate. Richard Nixon, probably the first president to come to mind when you hear the word impeachment, was not actually impeached; he resigned before the house could vote on his impeachment.
In this age of #MeToo, it comes as little surprise that Mr. Trump had paid for the silence of a porn star, Stormy Daniels, with whom he had an affair. But this week, when Mr. Trump admitted that he had repaid his lawyer Michael Cohen for the money paid to Daniels, he admitted to a felony. This repayment can be seen as a kind of donation, which therefore needed to be reported in Mr. Trump’s campaign finance paperwork. The fact that Mr. Trump lied about the payment and failed to report it in his federal election returns makes it a felony. Moreover, Mr. Trump furthered the case against him when Rudy Giuliani, another lawyer for the president, told “Fox & Friends” that the payment was necessary, saying, “Imagine if that came out on October 15, 2016, in the middle of the, you know, last debate with Hillary Clinton.”
Clearly, this payment was meant to influence the results of the election, which is the definition of a campaign donation. The administration’s admissions either suggest their gross incompetence or their understanding that Mueller has already uncovered this wrongdoing. This being said, we still know only a tiny amount of what Mueller knows. Trump is rightly concerned about the investigation. If he succumbs to his predictable impulses and attempts to fire Mueller, he will evidently be obstructing justice, which is yet another impeachable offense.
The impeachment case against Trump is strong. I think the time is coming for Congress to take action, but my concerns about impeachment remain. Though we are nearing the point where it can be seen as constitutional, it must be approached with tact and caution. In 1998, Clinton’s impeachment trials were clearly a partisan exercise, which resulted in no real action. Clinton is remembered by his supporters as the victim of a Republican campaign of vilification and slander; we don’t want to inadvertently martyrize Trump.
The right to impeach was intended to check the power of the executive branch, a power essential to safeguarding the Constitution. But given the polarized world we inhabit, it would also be a partisan issue. Trump and the complicit Republican administration have already done enough damage to American democracy. When rightfully exercising the legal power to remove this disastrous president, Democrats should be careful to avoid doing further harm.
