Former EC student responds to Trump impeachment inquiry

Dear Editor,

Now that the impeachment of Trump is seemingly imminent, it is time for us to have a deeper discussion about the potential risks of attempting to remove the sitting president and how the process could actually help his re-election.

I am in no way attempting to tone-police or call for civility, but the fact of the matter is that impeachment is not a surface level issue. If you do agree that impeachment and removal of Trump is deserved, we must reflect and discuss what it could potentially allude to. 

Removal from office definitely will not happen. For someone to be removed from office, it requires that a majority of the House Judiciary Committee approves of the impeachment charges, a majority vote in the House of Representatives, and 67% of the Senate to vote in favor of removal. In a time where Trump has a stupendously high approval rating among the Republican party, I see no feasible scenario where the last step would happen right now. Assuming this does get all the way to the Senate, Republican senators are going to want to appease their base. It is perfectly fair to assume that a majority of their voting base approves of Trump. 

The lasting effects of a failed attempt to remove Trump from office would only help his re-election. He would brag about how Democrats failed, he would be perfectly correct in saying that we could not get him impeached, and it would be months of free media coverage about how he was able to beat impeachment. Historical polling trends show that any time an elected official has been put on trial for impeachment, their approval rating rises. This time is no different. Situations like this force people to pick a side, and most of the time, people in the middle would not quite see a reason to remove them from office if they do not already.

That is not something we should necessarily chance right before Trump’s re-election. By all means, I personally do believe he should be removed from office, but it will not happen, and I believe he only has ground to gain from a failed attempt. Right now, it seems that the best way to get him out of office would be to vote next year.

Thank you,

Brandon Boyle