Donald Trump
Published December 19, 2019
After long hours of debate amongst US Lawmakers, Donald Trump was impeached on Wednesday as the President of the United States after majority of the House voted on the articles of impeachment Wednesday night. But wagging question is how Donald Trump could retain his seat as the US President despite impeachment.
In a historic as recall, the House of Representatives passed two articles of impeachment against President Trump and lawmakers voted primarily along party lines to impeach Trump, a move that will further divide and polarize the already much polarized nation.
There were 230 votes in favour of Impeachment from Democrats while there were 197 nays by Republicans against Impeachment.
One member, Democratic Rep. and presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard, refused to vote yay or nay but voted present.
While the impeachment voting was going on, Trump was holding a fiery rally with tens of thousands of his supporters in Michigan.
Trump is accused by Democrats of abuse of power and obstruction of congress, after he allegedly withdrew aid to Ukraine unless Ukraine’s government launched an investigation into his domestic rival, Joe Biden.
Trump is now officially the third sitting US President to be impeached and he will now face the Senate, controlled by his party, in a trial.
Sad day for Republicans, good day for Democrats.
Donald John Trump is the 45th and current president of the United States. Before entering politics, he was a businessman and television personality. Trump was born and raised in the New York City borough of Queens, and received a bachelor’s degree in economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Meanwhile, some analysts believe President Donald Trump has been impeached, but that doesn’t mean he’s being kicked out of the White House
A political science expert says impeachment is basically charges being laid against the president and Trump’s trial is set to go before the Senate in January
But a day later, there seems to be some confusion over what that means and what’s next. While some have been celebrating on social media as if Trump’s being removed from office, impeachment does not mean he’s moving out of the White House.
To explain, Ryan Hurl, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Toronto Scarborough, says you can think of impeachment as charges being laid and the U.S. House of Representatives — which voted to impeach Trump — as the prosecution.
“Just as prosecutors have to assemble evidence, that’s what the House has been doing,” he tells newsmen. “They’ve been assembling evidence, as any prosecutors would. They’ve decided there’s sufficient evidence, essentially to level charges, and that’s what the vote was last night. They’re just levelling charges against the president.”
That means Trump is now going to trial and the U.S. Senate will act as the court, deciding whether or not he will be removed from office.
“Essentially, it’s like an accusation that is now moving to the trial stage,” Hurl adds. “And there will be a trial for this crime, or based on the accusation of a crime. A trial in the Senate and it’s only if two-thirds of the Senators agree that the president is guilty of those charges that he’s removed from office.”
The charges Trump is facing are abuse of power, for a phone call where he appears to pressure the Ukrainian president to investigate his political rival, Joe Biden, in exchange for military aid, and obstruction of Congress, for allegedly trying to thwart an investigation into that phone call.
The trial is set to be at the Republican-controlled Senate early next year, as soon as the week of Jan. 6, if the Democrat-controlled House sends the impeachment articles.
But since the Republicans have a majority, it’s widely expected Trump will be acquitted and not removed from office.
“Almost go beyond unlikely [for Trump to be removed from office],” says Hurl. “It would be astounding if that were to happen.”
