The impeachment news of U.S. President, Donald Trump is all over the news right now but, what was the main reason behind it and when was the impeachment noticed? You can know all this with this article but first, let’s understand what is impeachment and what does it mean in the U.S. Parliament structure.
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What is Impeachment?
This heavy word has a heavy meaning, in the words of the Cambridge Dictionary Impeach means to make a formal statement saying that a public official is guilty of a serious offence in connection with their job. and as per the Oxford Dictionary, it refers to the action of calling into question the integrity or validity of something.
The U.S. Parliament structure is a federal republic system, in which the President, Congress (composed of House of Representatives and Senate) and federal courts share powers reserved to the national government. This means that the act of impeachment can be followed against any official who falls in the political system in either the three systems.
Donald Trump Impeachment Story
After the win of Volodymyr Zelensky in Ukrainian elections, there was a call made by the President, Donald Trump to congratulate him; this call is said to speculate the relationship between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky as days before the call, Trump had blocked a total amount of about $391 million which was to be used as military aid to Ukraine. This is known to be the reason for the raised issue of impeachment of Trump as in the words of the whistleblower (the one who had brought the issue into the light and is reported to be a CIA official), he used the powers of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country.
Trump is believed to have asked the newly elected Ukrainian President to perform two favours: to pursue investigations of Joe Biden (vice-president in the year 2008 and front-runner for the President post in the year 2020) and his son Hunter, and, to investigate a conspiracy theory that Ukraine, not Russia, was behind interference in the 2016 presidential election.
But why is Ukraine of so much importance to the U.S.? The Ukrainian government took a stand for its right to decide their own future and to resist Russian aggression under the U.S. Barrack Obama administration; owing to this stand, U.S. government has committed about $1.5 billion as military aid since 2014. This military aid has helped the Ukrainian army to train its soldiers and mechanize it with a modern range of weapons and technical assistance. After Trump blocked the military aid, the Ukrainian government is now looking for making a peace treaty with Moscow.
With this act, Trump has become the third U.S. President to be impeached by the House. On 16th December 2019 (this Wednesday) the Parliament House debated on the two impeachment articles posed on Trump:
Abusing his power by leveraging the federal government and taxpayer money for his personal and political gain.
Obstructing the congressional inquiry into his actions on Ukraine.
Trump needed to have 2/3rd of votes against him for his impeachment to be approved but with him being in power, the Republicans feel Trump is innocent and it is the Democrats who are just looking for an excuse to impeach Trump. The votes on both the impeachment articles have been passed but Trump is still not removed from his office; it is the now upon the Senate to determine what will happen next.
According to the U.S. Constitution, a president can still serve even after being impeached. The ultimate decision lies with the Senate which had taken place in the 2 previous impeachment cases- Bill Clinton and Andrew Johnson. The Senate will hold a trial to decide whether the President will be serving or not and 2/3rd of those present have to chose if the President has to be convicted or not. But the chances of anything like this to happen are very low.
But what can be learnt from this act of impeachment is the precision of the details-what were the actual details of the call, who are being affected, who all could be affected and what impact will the impeachment have on the U.S government and the relationship of the U.S. and the Ukrainian government. All these details have been looked with a very clear lens by all the political officials in power and it is being taken into consideration that every step is taken after having clear conversations and strong information for/against the impeachment.
The reason for taking this impeachment with precision is the effect it may have on the international community and the relationship of the U.S. government with other countries; this can take a negative impact on it and cause a glitch in the smooth functioning of economies of the countries dependent on U.S aid, especially for military and medical facilities.
- Written by Shruti Singh
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