US divided over attempts to impeach Trump
A DARK cloud of impeachment has threatened US President Donald Trump for many months, with Democrats in the US House of Representatives, where any such effort to remove him from office would begin, divided about whether to proceed.
In American politics, few procedures are as arduous or as divisive as the Constitution’s carefully balanced law for ousting a chief executive found to be unfit to serve.
Since he took office in January 2017, Trump has been under investigation. A turning point came in mid-April with the release of a redacted version of a long-awaited report from former US Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
On Wednesday, Mueller will testify before two House committees about his report, with Democrats planning to focus the proceedings on Trump’s conduct. The strategy, described by Democratic congressional aides, is intended to build support among Americans for Democrats’ investigative agenda, possibly leading to impeachment.
Some lawmakers in the Democratic-controlled House favour starting the impeachment process, but their leaders have resisted these demands.
The Senate is controlled by Trump’s fellow Republicans, meaning that any impeachment proceedings that might begin in the House would likely die in the Republican-controlled Senate, unless public sentiment were to shift dramatically in favour of removing the president.
About 45% of Americans said Trump should be impeached in poll in May, up from 40% in April. The founders of the US created the office of the presidency and feared that its powers could be abused. So they included impeachment as a central part of the Constitution.
The president, under the Constitution, can be removed from office for “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanours.”
Impeachment begins in the House, which debates and votes on whether to bring charges against the president via approval of an impeachment resolution, or “articles of impeachment,” by a simple majority of the House’s 435 members.
If the House approves such a resolution, a trial is then held in the Senate. A two-thirds majority vote is required in the 100-member Senate to convict and remove a president.
Trump has said on Twitter that he would ask the Supreme Court to intervene if Democrats try to impeach him.
The House has 235 Democrats, 197 Republicans, one independent and two vacant seats. As a result, the Democrats could impeach Trump with no Republican support. In 1998, when Republicans had a House majority, the chamber voted largely along party lines to impeach Clinton, a Democrat.
The Senate now has 53 Republicans, 45 Democrats and two independents who usually vote with the Democrats. Conviction and removal of a president would require 67 votes. So, for Trump to be impeached, at least 20 Republicans and all the Democrats and independents would have to vote against him.
In the unlikely event the Senate convicted Trump, Vice President Mike Pence would become president for the remainder of Trump’s term, which ends in 2021.