The time has come to impeach Donald Trump — just look at the US Constitution

Democrats think they have to back off and appease in order to win the next election. History tells us that might not be such a good strategy

The time has come to impeach Donald Trump. Not because I believe Trump meets the minimum criteria for impeachment set forth by his own Republican Party in the 1990s, nor because 370 former prosecutors say Trump would be charged with Obstruction of Justice if he weren’t a sitting president, but because impeachment is exactly how our founders and framers envisioned their newly formed government to function if they were ever to be in our current situation.

Further, impeachment can be used as a powerful tool to inform the public, frame the common narrative, and assist in winning the next election. In order to understand both of these, we must first dig deeper into how and why the impeachment provision was inserted into the United States Constitution in the first place.

In the late summer of 1787, as the Constitutional Convention was winding down in Philadelphia, our founding fathers were preparing to finalize the United States Constitution and create a new form of government. But there was one hold-up. George Mason, the author of Virginia’s Declaration of RIghts, feared they had provided too much power to the hypothetical executive. He felt that there would be no recourse if the president turned tyrannical in the vein of their recently defeated foe, King George III.

At the time of his concern, only “treason” and “bribery” were explicitly listed as grounds for impeachment, and he believed that this left too much leeway for the president to “subvert the constitution”. James Madison went on to note that without further constraints or consequences, the Constitution still lacked an avenue to remove a corrupt executive who “might betray his trust to foreign powers” or “involve himself in a scheme [of embezzlement]”.

As a result of this debate, Section 4, Article 2 of the United States Constitution came to read: “The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”

Fast-forward to today, and we are now at a point where the President of the United States is receiving income from foreign governments via his hotels, golf clubs, and apartment buildings, has ten potential instances of Obstruction of Justice alleged against him, and faces allegations that he is an unindicted co-conspirator cited as “Individual-1” for personally directing the campaign finance violations that sent his attorney, Michael Cohen, to prison. Not to mention his tendency to openly flirt with subverting the Constitution of the United States by attacking the freedom of the press, floating the possibility of not accepting election results as legitimate, and supporting the idea of unilaterally extending his first term by two years as “pay back for the failed attempted coup”.

Put it all together and we appear to have a scheme designed to enrich the first family, a betrayal of the President’s trust to foreign powers via his alleged obstruction of the investigation into Russia’s attack on our elections, allegations of high crimes and misdemeanours in the form of campaign finance violations, and an outspoken desire to subvert the constitution with his authoritarian tendencies. To my mind, Donald Trump has successfully engaged in the full trifecta of concerns that surrounded the creation of the impeachment clause in the United States Constitution.

But Democratic leadership refuses to act, and instead they’ve opted to try to work with this president and find “common ground”. The Democrats' argument appears to be that Donald Trump is so volatile and so dangerous, they want to stay in the center and appease him in order to win the next election. All the while, they’re choosing to ignore something which seems pretty clear to me: that Trump has already met the threshold for impeachment, and that impeachment could be used as a powerful tool to frame the upcoming election. Look no further than President Richard Nixon’s run-up to impeachment in the early 1970s.

In 1973, Richard Nixon had an approval rating in the mid to high 60s, and in January of 1974, only 19 per cent approved of removing him from office. After Nixon fired the Special Counsel looking into Watergate and decried the investigation as a “witch hunt” and a “hoax” (sound familiar?), the House began to seriously consider impeachment proceedings. By July 1974, the Nixon Tapes had leaked and the House moved to recommend impeachment hearings. By that time, more than 45 per cent of America was in favor of removing Nixon from office.

When Nixon resigned one month later, a clear majority, nearly 57 per cent of Americans, thought he should be removed. The act of gathering evidence, detailing out charges, and recommending impeachment hearings framed the narrative and shifted public opinion on the matter, and now it’s time for Democrats to rise to the occasion and do the same today.

For those unsure of how to proceed, let me finish with this. The Constitution contains an impeachment provision for a reason, and it should be understood not as an end unto itself, but as a means to an end. The process of impeachment is akin to a trial, where evidence is gathered and presented, witnesses testify and are cross-examined, charges are alleged and disputed, and then an ultimate verdict is reached and presented.

After the 2016 presidential election, which was clouded by foreign interference and full of dark money, the American people deserve to see all of the underlying evidence behind the allegations of obstruction, the allegations of campaign finance violations, and the allegations of self-enrichment by the Trump family. The only way to do this effectively is through impeachment.

The goal would not be to remove Trump, but instead it would be to provide the American people with the necessary information to make an informed choice in 2020. I have faith in thy fellow citizens that if impeachment yields significant evidence of “high crimes and misdemeanors” and “attempts to subvert the constitution”, irrespective of conviction and removal by the Senate, they will not send Donald Trump back to the White House in 2020.