Aidan Enright
There are certain questions that need to be answered when it comes to the impeachment of President Trump. What is an impeachable act? Did Trump commit an impeachable act? Is impeachment, and/or removal, of the President likely or even plausible? Are Democrats and the White House following proper impeachment procedures?
The Constitution states that the “President, Vice President and all Civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors,” although they left the interpretation of that language up to Congress. In Federalist Paper 65, Alexander Hamilton explained that impeachment was primarily a politically driven process that strictly involves the misconduct of public men and or a violation of some public trust. In other words, a President committing a crime is not necessarily grounds for impeachment just as actions that are not necessarily criminal can be seen as impeachable.
In President Trump’s case, it seems much more likely that a quid pro quo was inferred if not explicit in his dealings with Ukraine. The White House was willing to suspend military aid in order to leverage Ukraine into starting an investigation into Joe Biden and his son. The extent of this scandal is still not entirely clear and there is much more that still needs to be investigated. Republicans are right to question the intentions and credibility of Congressional Democrats. It only takes about two minutes of listening to Adam Schiff to make any Republican skeptical, but regardless of whether congressional Democrats have any credibility, the facts stand for themselves. Attempting to coerce a foreign power to investigate a political rival through the withholding of military aid is, to me, a clear breach of the public trust.
As far as to whether or not impeachment and removal of President Trump is plausible, the answer is yes but extremely unlikely. While it seems that Trump committed an impeachable act and may even be impeached in the House, there is little to no chance that the Republican majority Senate is ever going to vote to remove him. Impeachment ultimately only works through a bipartisan effort of Congress and it appears that with less than fifteen percent of Republicans favoring impeachment according to FiveThirtyEight polling, that it is highly unlikely that Republican officials would risk angering the voters that elected them by turning on the president. Trump has put congressional Republicans between a rock and a hard place; supporting the President may mean possibly losing support among independent voters that lean conservative but going against the President probably loses them the backing of the Republican base.
Congressional Democrats and the White House are both straying from procedural norms when it comes to the impeachment proceedings. Nancy Pelosi can declare an impeachment inquiry is all she wants but in order to actually start an official inquiry a vote needs to be held in the House. In addition to that, Pelosi has blocked the minority party from issuing subpoenas and calling its own witnesses, signaling that she has no intention for a fair process.
Alternatively, the White House has refused to allow members of the executive branch to testify before Congress, something that is certainly improper and will become an evident abuse of executive power if an official inquiry is started.
So is impeachment a realistic endeavor for Democrats? Not really. The only way they are going to be able to remove President Trump from office is through the 2020 election. That means that any impeachment effort will most likely be more towards that end rather than actually removing Trump.