President Trump impeachment basics
The major parts about President Trump’s impeachment proceedings and the surrounding dilemmas.
President Trump impeachment and other major issues.
This is a topic that could easily fill a hundred-page thesis with no trouble. For simplicity, this article will be broken up into three major parts; The Ukrainian Call, Syria-Turkey Stuff, President Trump Trivia. This is going to be discussing the points, people and other events that tie in for each major part.
The Ukrainian Call
On July 25, President Trump made a call to President Zelensky, the president of the Ukraine. At this time, the US Congress voted to send aid to Ukraine. Then, on Aug. 12 a whistleblower report was filed. It only became public on Sept. 26. This whistleblower claimed that President Trump asked President Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden. Then a memo of the phone call was released by the White House confirmed that President Trump asked President Zelensky to investigate Biden and his son. However, this memo is not a verbatim transcript but rather notes taken by assigned staff.
According to the memo, President Zelensky agreed to look into Joe Biden, and President Trump said he would have Rudy Giuliani, President Trump’s personal lawyer, and William Barr, the Attorney General look into it. After hearing of this, House Speaker Nacy Pelosi called for impeachment hearings. For a more detailed timeline, you can look here or here.
From there, Gordan Sondland was called to testify on Oct. 17, he is the EU Envoy who had been getting involved with Ukraine, which is not part of the EU. He had text messages from himself to Rudy Giuliani about Ukraine and gave testimony stating that President Trump told US officials to talk to Rudy Giuliani about US policy in Ukraine. Sondland also claimed that he didn’t know that Giuliani’s agenda included pushing Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden.
We do that all the time with foreign policy. […] And I have news for everybody; get over it. There’s going to be political influence in foreign policy.
— Mick Mulvaney
On the same day as Sondland’s testimony, Oct. 17, Mick Mulvaney, President Trump’s Acting Chief of Staff and Director of the Office of Management and Budget, held a surprise press conference where he says, “The look-back toward what happened in 2016 certainty was part of thing that he [President Trump] worried about in corruption with that nation. And that was absolutely appropriate.”
When told by a reporter that’s a quid pro quo, which is a favor or advantage granted or expected in return for something, Mulvaney said, “We do that all the time with foreign policy. […] And I have news for everybody; get over it. There’s going to be political influence in foreign policy.”
Here is a video of this. As well, this statement directly contradicts President Trump, who claims there was no quid pro quo.
On top of that, still on this same day, Oct. 17, Rick Perry, former Energy Secretary, who was tied to the call and the Ukraine aid, abruptly resigned.
Well, I have a little conflict of interest because I have a major, major building in Istanbul.
— President Trump
Syria-Turkey Stuff
President Trump recalled US troops from Syria, claiming that Turkey will take care of ISIS. However, Turkey is an enemy of the Kurdish, who fought with the US against ISIS. The Kurdish also have been staffing prisons holding thousands of ISIS fighters. Almost immediately, Turkey began attacking the Kurdish, meaning Kurdish forces had to rush to the front lines, leaving those prisons massively understaffed.
From there, President Trump negotiated a five-day cease-fire that started on Oct. 17, which had the Kurdish leaving the land before it became part of Turkey. As this was announced, Russian troops expanded their presence across north-eastern Syria. More on this deal here.
However President Trump’s policy decisions in Syria brought up questions about his explanation for why he chose to pull US troops out of Syria and allow the Turkish to claim large portions of land, which dug up a recorded portion of an interview in 2015 where President Trump says “Well, I have a little conflict of interest because I have a major, major building in Istanbul.”
More on that quote and the interview here.
President Trump Trivia
President Trump made the decision to host the 2020 Group of Seven Summit (G7 Summit), a major meeting of world leaders, at his Miami resort and golf course on Oct. 17. More on how his resort has been doing and the decision to hold the G7 Summit there here. However, following some backlash on this choice, President Trump announced that he had decided to move the meeting on Oct. 19. More quotes and information about his decision to move the G7 Summit here.
On Oct. 17, there was a house vote condemning the withdrawal of troops from Syria, President Trump claims Nancy Pelosi, the House Speaker, stormed out, while she claims he was the one to storm out. Pelosi quote here. And information on President Trump’s tweet here.
Your donation will support the student journalists of West High School. Your contribution will allow us to purchase Scholarship Yearbooks, newsroom equipment and cover our annual website hosting costs.
(all) Renee Gould is a senior at West, it is their third year on staff and is currently the opinion editor for the online publication.
