Enough Impeachment

By Jack Houlihan

The House of Representatives is currently holding hearings on whether or not to impeach President Donald Trump. The question is: did Trump coerce the Ukranian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, into giving him a personal favor? 

The root of the impeachment proceedings come out of a phone call between Trump and Zelensky. Many House Democrats believe that, in this phone call, Trump threatened to take away aid to Ukraine if Zelensky did not investigate Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden. However, the official transcript showed that President Trump did not directly coerce Zelensky. 


Jack Houlihan

 

With the failed Mueller report and now the current impeachment proceedings, it seems like House Democrats are taking every opportunity they have to go after President Trump. The problem with the Democratic party’s attempts at removing Trump is that they lack evidence. The Mueller Report, which cost $12 million, produced no conclusive evidence to suggest Trump colluded with Russia. Although the Mueller Report did not clear the president of any wrongdoing, it made clear that there was no evidence for any impeachment proceedings to continue. Some parallels can be drawn between the Mueller investigation and the current impeachment proceedings. The Mueller Report, which was supposed to bring down Trump, flopped. 

So far, the impeachment hearings involving the Ukranian government are looking like they are going in the same direction — a lot of fanfare over minimal facts and evidence. The Democrats’ entire case hinges on a five minute phone call that provided no concrete evidence of coercion. The Democrats’ current strategy of jumping on every hint of misconduct isn’t going to cut it for long. House Democrats would have a much better chance of impeachment if they were to wait for sufficient evidence before proceeding with an impeachment inquiry. 

It is clear that the Democrats are looking for every possible chance to remove Trump from office. What’s interesting about this impeachment inquiry is that it is happening during the run up to the next election. If the House Democrats were to proceed with impeachment and fail to get anywhere, it is possible that they would lose many moderate supporters. The loss of moderate voters combined with the cutthroat race for the Democratic nomination could prove disastrous for the Democratic Party.