Why the Democrats Should Impeach Trump

When you bring up the term impeachment, the first president that comes to mind is Richard Nixon. His case is the one that is most closely associated with what Donald Trump did, and that is to try to rig an election. More specifically with Nixon, it was re-election. Most people don't know that the whole Watergate scandal was an attempt to break into the Democratic National Committee Headquarters located in the Watergate hotel in Washington, DC on June 17, 1972. The object of the break-in was to gain an advantage against the democrats in the upcoming presidential election.

Nixon felt that the break-in was necessary because they were unable to gather sufficient information from wiretaps they had previously placed in their offices in May of 1972. When the burglars were caught red-handed in June, of course Nixon denied any knowledge of their activity. Thus began the case against him for obstruction of justice.

Fast forward to 2016 and we have the meeting at Trump tower between Donald Trump Jr. and the Russians. His intent was to get information that would be harmful to Hillary Clinton's campaign that the Russians suggested they had. Donald Sr. was so sure that he would get this information that he hinted at a major announcement to come in the near future concerning the information he thought his son would be getting.

When that didn't pan out, he then publicly asked the Russians for any information they could get from hacking Hillary's emails. The Russians had already launched a campaign that would take over advertising on social media sights that targeted mostly first time voters with lies about Hillary Clinton's past and painted her as a bigger crook than Trump himself.

Naturally, Trump denied any knowledge of this campaign or the Trump tower meeting. Does anyone really believe that Trump had no knowledge of what was going on in a building that he owned and resided in, or that a meeting was taking place headed by his son?

Bill Clinton was a very popular president that had a history of alleged affairs while holding public office in Arkansas and as president of the United States. These allegations were denied and later proven untrue or settled out of court. The most harmful charges were the ones that were brought to public attention by a Civil Servant employee by the name of Linda Tripp, who secretly taped her conversations between Monica Lewinsky and herself.

Lewinsky would often talk about her secret affair with President Clinton and Tripp felt it was her duty to expose the president. Even though it was admitted by Lewinsky to be a consensual relationship, Clinton denied the affair under oath and was brought up on perjury and obstruction of justice charges which led to him being impeached, although he was never removed from office.

Donald Trump was accused of having paid sexual encounters with at least two women prior to his presidential campaign. There were other claims of sexual misconduct that were allegedly not consensual as well that he also settled out of court. However, two women have come forward with allegations that Trump paid them to keep quiet in order to protect his campaign for the presidency. In addition to those charges, Trump was heard on a recording during an interview bragging about how he used his status of wealth and celebrity to force himself on women without consequence.

Porn star Stormy Daniels admitted to having a one-night affair with Trump for which she was paid by his then personal lawyer Michael Cohen, to keep the affair quiet. Playboy Bunny Karen McDougal has admitted to an ongoing affair with Trump that occurred during his current wife Melania's pregnancy with their son Baron. She too has said she was paid to keep the affair secret. It's the timing of these payments that has Trump in the hot seat as they may have been campaign finance violations.

Here we have two separate instances in modern history, that two presidents were impeached for totally different reasons. Nixon was a fairly popular president, although he was involved in a very unpopular war. His biggest blunder before the Watergate incident was ordering National Guard troops to fire live ammunition at protesting students on the campus of Kent State University in Ohio in 1970 killing four students.

Despite that, the economy was doing well, but the country wanted out of the war. He knew this was the biggest threat to him not being re-elected for a second term and he felt he needed an advantage against the Democrats, so they planned the break-in just before the 1972 elections. The government held investigations and could not conclude that he had any part of the break-ins, but through the persistence of two reporters from the Washington Post, Bob Woodward and Carl Berstein, they finally got the evidence needed to impeach Nixon. This is the biggest reason Trump wants to discredit most media outlets and praises Fox News, who rarely report any news of his illegal activity.

Bill Clinton was a very popular president when his affair was exposed to the public. It was very shocking to finally find out that Clinton had been involved in an extramarital affair while still in the White House. The Republicans made a big deal out of this but it really backfired on them for several reasons.

First of all, it wasn't Monica Lewinsky who exposed the relationship, it was her so-called friend Linda Tripp who had been recording their calls in which Lewinsky confided the intimate details to her. That did not sit well with the public. Second, Hillary did not show any disdain for Bill and stood by his side, much like Melania has done with the allegations against Trump. If it didn't upset Hillary, then why should the public turn on Bill. Third, this was not what the public would consider to be an impeachable offense. Yes Bill lied under oath which turned out to be a mistake, but it was a normal reaction for a man that was possibly trying to save embarrassment to the office of the presidency.

The public determined this was not detrimental to the well being of the country and the Republicans were viewed as being wasteful of taxpayers' money in the pursuit to remove Clinton from office on such a petty issue. That's the main reason why Clinton's approval rating and popularity rose during and after his impeachment hearings.

This is where Nancy Pelosi is making her mistake in trying to compare Trump to Clinton. I can understand that she feels the Senate will not vote to impeach him since the Republicans have the majority and it may not go through, but she is dead wrong for not proceeding with the impeachment process.

In 2018, the midterm elections showed just how unpopular and fed up the American people are with Trump by voting the Democrats into the majority in the House of Representatives in hopes they would impeach him. While we were waiting on the results of the Mueller report, people were sure that Trump would be found guilty of obstruction of justice and maybe collusion or conspiring with the Russians to fix the election.

The report has clearly stated that they could not prove that Trump himself had colluded with the Russians, but that there were attempts to do so by the people around him involved in his campaign. The report has also concluded that Trump is guilty of obstruction of justice, but the law prevents Mueller from charging a sitting president with any crimes, but other parts of the government can pursue him in order to charge him with the crimes he has committed.

This is something I don't understand because Nixon committed his crimes while in office and Trump committed his before taking office. Also, Nixon's first Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned from office due to the crimes he was found to have committed while serving as Baltimore County Executive and Governor of Maryland, a well as Vice President of the United States.

Again, Nancy Pelosi is afraid that impeaching Trump in the House will be overturned by the Senate, making him more popular. The fact is the Democrats have the duty to impeach Trump now. I don't believe the American people are stupid enough to vote out Democrats in 2020 and put in more republicans that will empower Trump to take us further into a dictatorship. I believe that the American people are looking to see who will stand up to this criminal who is running the country like no laws pertain to him or his administration.

It is the duty of Congress to start the impeachment process mainly because what Trump is doing across the board is totally against American values and is putting American lives in jeopardy worldwide with his policies. It is no longer only about obstruction of justice, though that is the basis for the start of his removal. He is destroying the country with his foreign policy decisions which left unchecked, will lead us into a war or possibly an attack on our soil. His love for dictators threatens our democracy.

The most dangerous thing though is his disdain for the laws of our land. Not only did I not know that a person could refuse to answer a subpoena without consequence, I also didn't know one person could order another person to refuse to answer a subpoena. This is where the Democrats have the biggest advantage in the impeachment process. As I stated earlier, I don't believe the American people will stand for this kind of nonsense.

The impeachment process will expose who the true Americans are in our government. Any politician who does not stand up for these basic laws that ALL Americans are supposedly required to adhere to is not worthy of holding office in this country. If they are not required to answer a subpoena, then why should you or I be required to do the same.

Let's expose the people who are not willing to uphold the Constitution but are getting paid for it with our tax dollars. Let's get some new blood in Congress and remove these politicians that are willing to move us toward a dictatorship. Let's vote out the people, republicans and democrats, congressmen and senators alike, who are afraid to stand up to this person who defies all laws and respect for the office of the presidency. Nancy Pelosi, do your job and begin impeachment proceedings or step down now.