This Needs a Title
The speeches, the attitudes and the actions in the House of Representatives on Monday, Nov. 4 were as predictable as the proceeding’s final outcome.
231 House Democrats (with just two defectors) voted to back an impeachment inquiry against President Trump while 194 Republicans (with one former defecting party member) voted against the measure.
It was the kind of ritual that Washington loves, and for all the bombast, it’s unlikely that anyone’s mind was changed.
Monday’s vote for impeachment proceedings was not a vote to impeach Trump, though it was clearly a telling test for outcomes of a future impeachment vote. It comes over two decades after Newt Gingrich’s House voted to impeach Bill Clinton and four and a half decades after the Judiciary Committee voted to impeach Richard Nixon. As the first 180 years of our republic saw only one impeachment with President Andrew Johnson, this constitutional provision has become more frequently weaponized in modern politics.
Republican reactions reveal that just like the drive against Clinton in 1998, this one-sided effort seems almost certain to fail in the Senate. Republican House Minority leader Kevin McCarthy reduced it to raw politics: “Democrats are trying to impeach the president because they are scared they cannot defeat him at the ballot box. Why do you not trust the people?” The White House also rushed out a statement preceding the vote: “Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats’ unhinged obsession with this illegitimate impeachment proceeding does not hurt President Trump; it hurts the American people. Trump reacted to this mess by calling it, “The greatest witch hunt in American history!”
As Democratic House private hearings continue to drag on and on and on, talk of holding a final impeachment vote by Thanksgiving have faded. Democrats are now hoping to wrap things up by Christmas. That would mean a Senate trial in January, and with more bumps along the way, the vote could spill over into early February during presidential primary voting.
These impeachment inquiry proceedings are already depriving the Democratic candidates of media coverage and could potentially pull the likes of Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and Amy Klobuchar off the campaign trail due to lack of coverage.
Despite the unknown future of the impeachment inquiry, the whole mess feels of a script. Pelosi once argued that impeachment could not work without being bipartisan—suddenly that’s nowhere to be heard. There’s no stopping this now.
As always I ask that you would keep our country in your prayers.
Jacob Sanchez is a freshman studying general studies.