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Trump is NOT IMPEACHED 2020-03-10 ¿ÀÈÄ 9:34:00

Donald Trump's two articles of impeachment were acquitted by the Senate on February 5th.
The House's charges against President Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of congressional investigation were rejected, bringing the third presidential impeachment trial in U.S History to an end.

The U.S impeachment process consists of 5 steps in total: Investigation, Articles of Impeachment, House vote, Senate Trial, and Senate Vote. During the investigation, there is a closed door Testimony and a House vote. The Intelligence Committee conducts public hearings, then submits a report containing its findings to the Judiciary Committee. In the case of President Trump, the Judiciary Committee held two more hearings, the first with legal scholars to discuss the severity of President Trump¡¯s conduct(and whether it amounted to an impeachable offense), and the second with staff lawyers from the Intelligence Committee, who presented their respective reports regarding the investigation. Both the president and his counsel refused the invitation to participate in either of those hearings. The proposed articles of impeachment charged President Trump with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The first article charged President Trump for compromising both the fairness of the upcoming 2020 US Presidential election and US national security by soliciting the Ukranian interference. According to the House, he used his power only to his personal political benefit. The second article accused President Trump of impeding the constitutional power of the House. He did not comply with the lawful subpoenas issued by the House, and ordered the offices and officials he was in control of to not comply as well.

The impeachment trial failed at the last step; the Senate vote.

Only one article needed to pass in order to impeach the President. However, both votes failed. The first article required a majority of 67 votes in order to remove Trump from office. However, the vote failed 48-52. The second article, obstruction of justice, failed 47-53.

The 4-month long effort of the Democrats to impeach Trump, who allegedly withheld military aid to Ukraine in order to investigate his democratic rivals(including former Vice President Joe Biden) was in vain.

There were a lot of surprises during the impeachment trial. The Republican Senator Mitt Romney voted to convict President Trump on the first article of impeachment during the trial. He referred to President Trump as an ¡®autocrat¡¯ during his speech at the Senate, and stated that Trump¡¯s actions were ¡®an act against the Constitution¡¯, made undeniable by the evidence present.

Having turned his back against both his party and the president to support the Democrats and their accusations against Trump, Senator Romney is now seen as a villain by many Republicans. However, even with such surprises(which Republicans consider as acts of betrayal), Trump was bound to be acquitted, since no Republican voted against him in the House, which made it highly unlikely for all the Republican Senators to vote against Trump either.

When asked why the other Republican Senators did not vote against President Trump like he did, he put forth a rationalization common amongst his Republican colleagues; that President Trump¡¯s fate should be decided during the upcoming election, not at an impeachment trial. (The Atlantic)

Trump¡¯s approval ratings have stayed near the mid-40s even after the impeachment trial, according to CNN. Republican supporters at a Trump rally said they found Democratic attempts to impeach Trump ¡°amusing¡±, according to CNN. While Republicans seemed confident that Trump would be re-elected, Democrats are still focusing all their energy on the upcoming 2020 presidential election.

If President Trump were to be impeached, under the 25th Amendment of the Constitution, Vice President Mike Pence would take over office and be inaugurated president. If he doesn¡¯t take over, Nancy Pelosi will, because she is second in the line of succession. This may prove problematic for the Republican party, since Ms. Pelosi has been known to be a very avid opponent of President Trump.

Trump's Ukraine phone call regarding the Mueller reports and the Kremlin conspiracy theory as well as Biden's investigation cannot be considered legal and righteous just because he was found not guilty in trial. Donald Trump, as the U.S President with money, power and dubious intentions, is displaying suspicious behavior. However, his actions, combined with the evidence put forth at the impeachment trial, has not been enough to remove him from office. He might be a danger to both national and world security; but, for now, the impeachment inquiry has proved that he isn't.

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