BY ANNABELLE SHEA ’23
After two weeks of impeachment hearings before the House Intelligence Committee, many Mount Holyoke students and staff now believe that President Trump committed an impeachable offense, but that he will not be removed from office.
“I think the House will impeach Trump, the Senate will not move to put him on trial, and that Trump will use the House Democrats’ efforts as a sabre to successfully rally his base and cut down his general election opponent,” said Assistant Professor of Politics Ali Aslam.
In a survey conducted among Mount Holyoke students, of 38 respondents, 89.5 percent said that they believe Trump should be impeached, but only 15.6 percent believe he actually will be.
Samantha Pittman ’23 said, “as much as I would like Trump to be guilty of the charges he is brought up on, I don’t think he will be voted out.”
The Trump impeachment inquiry started after a whistleblower complaint about alleged efforts by President Trump and some of his advisors to press the recently-elected president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, to investigate the son of former Vice President Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, who served as a board member of a Ukrainian company.
The complaint suggested that Trump’s administration withheld $391 million in U.S. security assistance for Ukraine until Zelensky’s administration announced that it would open such an investigation. Later, the Trump administration released notes of a call between Trump and Zelensky in which Trump brought up Ukraine’s investigation of Hunter Biden “as a favor.”
Through a series of public and private hearings, House Intelligence Committee members have tried to determine the conditions in which the Trump administration withheld aid from Ukraine. Lawmakers such as House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Devin Nunes (R-CA) have defended Trump, claiming, “The Democrats have struggled to make the case that President Trump committed some impeachable offense on his phone call with Ukrainian President Zelensky.”
The testimony of witnesses like Gordon Sondland, however, challenge Trump’s alleged innocence.
“Mr. Giuliani [Trump’s attorney]’s requests were a quid pro quo for arranging a White House visit for President Zelensky,” Sondland said. “Mr. Giuliani demanded that Ukraine make a public statement announcing the investigations of the 2016 election.”
“Mr. Giuliani was expressing the desires of the president of the United States, and we knew these investigations were important to the president,” Sondland added.
Because only two presidents have ever been impeached in U.S. history, many are uncertain about what it takes for a president to be removed from office.
The Constitution states that a president must be removed from office for “treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors.” The meaning of this phrase will be the subject of testimony by constitutional scholars before the House Judiciary Committee this week.
84.4 percent of students surveyed said they don’t believe Trump will be removed from office.
“Yes, I think he is guilty, but unfortunately I don’t think politicians will vote with what the facts say,” Pittman said. “We live in a day and age where people vote based on partisanship rather than the truth.”
Assistant Professor of Politics Adam Hilton echoed the views of most Mount Holyoke survey respondents, predicting that a Senate trial on articles of impeachment would likely result in acquittal.
“The Senate is likely to hold a trial and then acquit the president of any wrongdoing,” Hilton said. “Senate Democrats simply don’t have the numbers.”
“Trump and the GOP will use the impeachment as confirmation that he represents a threat to politics-as-usual, which [Trump] will use to rally his base,” Hilton added.
“Ironically, while impeachment is more than justified in this case and may be necessary for the long-term health of the country, it may be what helps reelect Donald Trump in 2020,” he said.