What’s Going On With the Calls for Trump’s Impeachment?
Trying to keep track of new, possibly illegal developments within the Trump administration can feel like an endless game of pin the crime on the president, so don’t blame yourself if you’re having a hard time following the will-he-or-won’t-he-be-impeached saga.
While attempts to impeach Trump had more or less stalled in recent months, in no small part thanks to Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s past efforts to quash them, the question of impeachment is back in the news after Trump’s latest international scandal; get all the details below.
What did Trump do this time?
Details emerged last week about Trump allegedly attempting to pressure the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, to investigate former vice president and current Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter. The full text of the phone call between Trump and Zelensky was released by the White House on Wednesday.
The Trump administration’s military aid to Ukraine was frozen at the time of Trump’s conversation with Zelensky, raising the question of corruption; “No explicit quid pro quo is necessary to betray your country,” tweeted Representative Adam B. Schiff of California.
What will happen next?
On Tuesday afternoon, Nancy Pelosi announced that the House would begin a formal impeachment inquiry of President Trump. "The actions taken to date by the president have seriously violated the Constitution," she told reporters at the Capitol on Tuesday.
Who’s in favor of impeachment?
More than two-thirds of the 235 House Democrats are now supporting impeachment as of Tuesday afternoon, including longtime Pelosi ally Representative John Larson, and more are likely to join them. On Tuesday afternoon Dick Durbin, the number two ranking Senate Democrat, came out with a statement of support for an impeachment inquiry, and Joe Biden said he would back impeachment if Trump does not cooperate with Congress.
"Having taken an oath of office before God and my fellow citizens to support and defend the Constitution of the United States, I can only conclude that Congress move forward with articles of impeachment,” said Representative Antonio Delgado of New York in a Tuesday morning statement.
What would need to happen for Trump to be impeached?
Impeachment is a charge of misconduct made against a holder of public office and does not necessarily result in removal from office. In order for Trump to be impeached, the House would need to debate and vote on whether to bring charges against the president via approval of an impeachment resolution, or “articles of impeachment,” by a simple majority of the House’s 435 members. If said resolution were approved, a trial would then be held in the Senate, in which House members act as the prosecutors, the senators as jurors, and the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, John Roberts, would preside.
A two-thirds majority vote would be required in the 100-member Senate to convict and remove a president. (It should be noted that a president has never been removed from office as a direct result impeachment; although presidents Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton were impeached by the House, neither was convicted by the Senate.)
Who would become president if Trump were removed from office following impeachment?
Vice President Mike Pence, so let’s not get too excited.
Originally Appeared on Vogue
