Impeachment underway in US as world watches

FOR so many reasons, the world is watching unfolding events in the impeachment inquiry against United States President Donald Trump, who is accused of seeking foreign help to smear leading Democratic Party presidential rival Joe Biden ahead of the coming US presidential election.

After several months holding off calls for impeachment of the US president, House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi finally agreed to begin an inquiry after meeting with Democratic Party leaders, following reports that Trump had pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate Biden’s son Hunter who works for a company drilling for gas in Ukraine. Trump has admitted calling the Ukrainian president and discussing Biden with him, but denied he withheld nearly $400 million in US aid to Ukraine as leverage.

Impeachment of a sitting president is a process in the government systems of some 25 countries around the world, including the Philippines. In the US, the House votes by simple majority to impeach – that is, to file charges that are considered “high crimes and misdemeanors,” which are then tried by the Senate which needs a three-fourths vote to convict and remove the president from office.

In the whole of US history, two presidents – Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998 --have been impeached by the House but both were eventually cleared by the Senate which was dominated by the sitting president’s party. This is why the expectation today is that Trump will be impeached by the Democratic Party-controlled House but will win in the Republican Party-controlled Senate. For the impeachment process is a political process, rather than a judicial one.

Nations around the world are now closely following developments in Washington, DC, for various reasons. President Trump initiated the US trade war with China, which has now greatly affected China’s economy and those of other nations, like ours, which trade heavily with China. Trump singularly rejected an agreement with Iran which is now suspected of hitting back with the attack on Saudi Arabia’s oil production facilities.

Trump has openly criticized America’s traditional allies in Europe for not spending enough for regional security. He has hit Mexico and other Central American governments for the horde of immigrants seeking to enter the US. He has, however, praised Russian President Vladimir Putin, defending Russia against US intelligence reports that the Russians intervened in the US elections in 2016 against Hilary Clinton, for Trump.

As for the Philippines, Trump has not figured prominently in our national affairs, but the US government continues to stand by us, despite President Duterte’s declaration at one time that he was ready to stand with China and Russia against the rest of the world.

Thus, for so many reasons, the world is watching closely as the impeachment process against Trump opens in the US. It will affect the election campaign that is now underway towards the presidential election in November, 2020, when Trump seeks reelection.

The US is the world’s leading economy today as well as its lone military superpower. We hope the ongoing impeachment process will not introduce any destabilization that is bound to affect us and the rest of the world.