by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
The United States House of Representatives took a big step yesterday in reclaiming Congress's position as a co-equal branch of government. The House, which has a Constitutional power to hold the President accountable through a process called "impeachment," chose to begin that process with an impeachment "inquiry" into various acts of the Trump administration. Should that inquiry come to the conclusion that Trump and his administration committed impeachable acts, a formal impeachment hearing would be held in the House. And, if an impeachment motion passed in the House, the whole matter would be forwarded to the Senate for a trial which could conceivably result in the President being forced out of office.
It would take a two-thirds majority in the Senate (67 votes) to remove the President. Republicans currently control fifty-three of one hundred Senate seats, so a conviction in the Senate would be highly unlikely.
Two other American Presidents, Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, have been formally impeached by the House of Representatives, but neither was convicted by the Senate and removed from office. Richard Nixon chose to resign before the House could formally vote on articles of impeachment.
For a long time the Democratic leadership refused to move forward with an impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump, primarily because many felt that the Republican majority in the Senate would ultimately render the effort toothless. House leadership, and in particular Speaker Pelosi, saw the impeachment effort as being a fool's errand, one which would anger moderates and ultimately end in failure.
Several inquiries on a variety of subjects were already underway in the House of Representatives before yesterday, but those were often met with "stonewalling" from the White House - situations where the President refused to provide materials that the committees requested, or ordered his employees - and sometimes even former employees - not to testify. Now those pre-existing inquiries are being taken together under the umbrella of an "impeachment inquiry," where the necessity of cooperating with the investigations is necessarily heightened.
The situation which finally motivated the Democratic majority in the House - and the Democratic Speaker of the House - into taking action was the Trump administration's refusal to turn over a "whistleblower" complaint that a member of the intelligence community filed with his agency's Inspector General. The Inspector General made a determination that the complaint was "credible" and "urgent" and then sent it to the acting Director of National Intelligence where it should have been, by law, passed on to the appropriate committees in Congress. Instead, Trump and other White House officials were given access to the complaint, and the administration then ordered the Director of National Intelligence not to share the complaint with Congress.
Speaker Pelosi felt that this violation of law was egregious - yet simple enough for most Americans to understand. Based on that, she supported the growing effort to move toward impeachment.
Yesterday afternoon Speaker Pelosi stood in front of a row of American flags and informed the American people that their Constitution still functions and reigns supreme. An impeachment inquiry was about to begin.
Citizen Journalist
The United States House of Representatives took a big step yesterday in reclaiming Congress's position as a co-equal branch of government. The House, which has a Constitutional power to hold the President accountable through a process called "impeachment," chose to begin that process with an impeachment "inquiry" into various acts of the Trump administration. Should that inquiry come to the conclusion that Trump and his administration committed impeachable acts, a formal impeachment hearing would be held in the House. And, if an impeachment motion passed in the House, the whole matter would be forwarded to the Senate for a trial which could conceivably result in the President being forced out of office.
It would take a two-thirds majority in the Senate (67 votes) to remove the President. Republicans currently control fifty-three of one hundred Senate seats, so a conviction in the Senate would be highly unlikely.
Two other American Presidents, Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, have been formally impeached by the House of Representatives, but neither was convicted by the Senate and removed from office. Richard Nixon chose to resign before the House could formally vote on articles of impeachment.
For a long time the Democratic leadership refused to move forward with an impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump, primarily because many felt that the Republican majority in the Senate would ultimately render the effort toothless. House leadership, and in particular Speaker Pelosi, saw the impeachment effort as being a fool's errand, one which would anger moderates and ultimately end in failure.
Several inquiries on a variety of subjects were already underway in the House of Representatives before yesterday, but those were often met with "stonewalling" from the White House - situations where the President refused to provide materials that the committees requested, or ordered his employees - and sometimes even former employees - not to testify. Now those pre-existing inquiries are being taken together under the umbrella of an "impeachment inquiry," where the necessity of cooperating with the investigations is necessarily heightened.
The situation which finally motivated the Democratic majority in the House - and the Democratic Speaker of the House - into taking action was the Trump administration's refusal to turn over a "whistleblower" complaint that a member of the intelligence community filed with his agency's Inspector General. The Inspector General made a determination that the complaint was "credible" and "urgent" and then sent it to the acting Director of National Intelligence where it should have been, by law, passed on to the appropriate committees in Congress. Instead, Trump and other White House officials were given access to the complaint, and the administration then ordered the Director of National Intelligence not to share the complaint with Congress.
Speaker Pelosi felt that this violation of law was egregious - yet simple enough for most Americans to understand. Based on that, she supported the growing effort to move toward impeachment.
Yesterday afternoon Speaker Pelosi stood in front of a row of American flags and informed the American people that their Constitution still functions and reigns supreme. An impeachment inquiry was about to begin.
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