President Donald Trump Should be Impeached: An Op-Ed

Patrick Kissel, Reporter

After a little over two years of president Donald Trump, the country has been dragged through three federal government shutdowns, including the longest shutdown in U.S. history, the withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord, the withdrawal of the U.S. from the U.N. Human Rights Council, numerous attempts to impose travel bans on countries, and numerous attempted coups against other governments perpetrated by our own, like that in Venezuela.

We are faced with a president mired in scandals whose amount, and severity are unprecedented. Never before in our nation’s history has our country had so many controversial topics engulf a president, and yet he remains in office. Just to knock the tip of the iceberg, as according to articles from CNN and the Washington Post spanning the entire presidency, Trump has been directly included in numerous campaign finance violations, tax fraud, business malpractice, breaking contracts and numerous other things.

First, on campaign finance violation. All of this comes from a payment made by Trump to prevent people from sharing intimate details about Trump, and their experiences in relations with Trump. These payments, which were made weeks before the election, would be considered a campaign finance violation because the payment was not reported to the Federal Elections Commission, and was related to the campaign.

According to CNN, Trump was implicated in this after the trial of his former lawyer Michael Cohen for this very issue, as Cohen paid the women. Had it of been left there, then only Cohen would have committed the violation as it was an issue directly related to the campaign and exceeded the dollar limit for how much an individual can contribute to a campaign, but because Trump paid Cohen back, it becomes a different matter entirely.

Next, numerous contractors Trump has worked with have come out to say that he in fact does not always pay in full based on what the contract says. According to the New York TImes, numerous cases of skilled labourers hired by Trump not being paid have been reported, though there has been no notable cases actually brought to court. This still should raise concerns, and be investigated.

Finally, according to the New York Times and the Huffington Post, just recently reports have surfaced that for years Trump has been using undocumented workers for cheap labour. Going all the way back to before 2000, Trump has been reported to use undocumented workers to work in construction or help staff his establishments. The most recent reports are that Trump used undocumented workers at Mar A Lago, going to extreme lengths to keep them secret, including hiding their names from the secret service when they do background checks of the staff to ensure the safety of government officials at the establishment.

All of this evidence shows just the tip of the iceberg for why Trump should be impeached. Not only for violating the rules of our democracy elections, but for jeopardizing his own safety, and the safety of other elected or appointed officials as well. This raises the question, why has he not been impeached yet?

While articles of impeachment have been introduced by more rebellious members of the democratic party, speaker of the house of representatives Nancy Pelosi has refused to bring them to the floor for debate. After the election in interviews with CNN, she made clear should would not bring them to the floor, or at least not immediately, and her reason was fear that they would hurt the democrats’ chances in 2020, which is disgraceful. For the democrats to put their party before their country is disgusting, and the democrats should jeopardize their party if it means the rule of law in the highest offices in the United States.