The
impeachment
trial
of President Donald Trump
has generated much debate
across the political spectrum.
The Daily spoke with several
conservative
students
about their viewpoints on
impeachment.
On Jan. 15, 2019, the House
of Representatives filed two
impeachment articles against
Trump,
accusing
him
of
abusing his power as president
and obstructing Congress. In
the following two weeks, U.S.
senators filled the chamber to
conduct an impeachment trial
against
Trump,
ultimately
voting to acquit the president
of
all
charges.
The
vote
was along party lines, with
the exception of Sen. Mitt
Romney, R-Utah, who voted
that the president should be
charged with one of the two
counts.
The filing of the two articles
came after a whistleblower
in the White House filed a
complaint on Aug. 12 to the
Senate and House Intelligence
Committees,
claiming
the
president used his position
to get a foreign country to
meddle
in
the
2020
U.S.
presidential election. In a
phone call, Trump allegedly
asked the president of Ukraine
to
investigate
disproven
corruption allegations against
Democratic
presidential
candidate Joe Biden and his
son, Hunter Biden.
Austin McIntosh, Michigan
campus
correspondent
for
Campus
Reform
and
LSA
senior, said the president did
no wrongdoing and therefore
should
not
have
been
impeached at all.
“When
I
read
the
transcript, I didn’t see any
(wrongdoings),”
McIntosh
said. “I would say (Trump)
didn’t (commit any crimes).
(Trump) didn’t even begin
to ask about (looking into
Biden), what he did tell him
about was ‘Look, we found
out that there seems to be
some corruption going on. It’s
your administrators or your
advisers, and I think you need
to find the root of that.’ I don’t
think Donald Trump saying
‘Hey, there’s corruption in
your government, figure it
out,’ I don’t think that’s so bad
or anything.’”
Nicholas Schuler, freshman
chair of College Republicans
and
LSA
freshman,
said
though Trump did have a
phone call with the Ukrainian
president, he believes there
was nothing said that would
be worthy of impeachment.
This is a view supported by
many within the Republican
party. Though one in three
Republicans
believe
that
Trump
may
have
done
something wrong, 86 percent
believe he was not deserving
of removal from office.
“So we know that he had a
phone call with the Ukrainian
president, and we also know
that aid was later cut to
Ukraine,” Schuler said. “I
think anything in between
that we don’t know. There was
no explicit wrongdoing by the
president and certainly not
something impeachable.”
Lincoln Ballew, president
of
Young
Americans
for
Freedom and LSA junior, said
she believes the impeachment
trial isn’t a pressing issue for
many Americans.
“I don’t think very many
people care about it or pay
attention because it’s really
complicated and there hasn’t
been very much transparency
with the issue,” Ballew said.
“It’s been really hard for the
public to follow what’s been
going on, so I don’t think many
people care.”
Voters
in
Michigan
are
divided over their thoughts
on impeachment. Michigan
is a key battleground state in
the 2020 election, and a state
Trump won in 2016. Trump
has made two campaign visits
to the state since January
2019, and Vice President Mike
Pence is scheduled to make an
appearance in Troy at the end
of the month.
Another common argument
voiced by those who spoke
with The Daily was that the
process
of
impeachment
should be fundamentally non-
partisan and should remain
based on the facts. McIntosh
also
said
senators
should
use their voting power to
reflect how their constituents
feel about impeaching the
president.
“There’s
congressmen
or
senators who feel like they
shouldn’t be afraid of the
backlash from the right —
you’re supposed to represent
your people,” McIntosh said.
“You should represent your
base, and if a certain base feels
a certain way on the president,
that’s how you should vote.”
Since
the
conclusion
of
impeachment,
many
have
speculated
about
how
the
impeachment
trial
will
affect the 2020 election. LSA
junior Caroline Martin, vice
president
of
outreach
for
WeListen, said she believes
the impeachment trial did not
have much effect on the 2020
election.
“I think the impeachment
proceedings
are
timed
very well,” Martin said. “I
don’t
necessarily
know
if
they would have impacted
my personal view of this
particular president because
your opinions of him before,
whether or not you agree with
him or disagree with him,
wouldn’t change as much after
hearing some of the evidence;
you would be more inclined to
stick with what you already
believe.”
Regina
Egan,
communications director of
College Democrats, also wrote
in a message to The Daily that
the organization believes the
impeachment
trial
shows
voters in the 2020 election
that
the
Democrats
are
steadfast in their commitment
to the truth.
“In fact, (the impeachment
trial) shows that Democrats
value the integrity of a trial
and are willing to deliver
on
their
fundamental
responsibility to the American
people, the majority of whom
wanted
witnesses,”
Egan
wrote.
“What
voters
will
remember in November is the
Democrats’ pursuit of truth
and a fair trial.”
Daily staff reporter Julia
Forrest can be reached at
juforrest@umich.edu.
2A — Thursday, February 13, 2020
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What if when you graduated, umich automatically took you off email lists......
but we can’t live in a perfect world soooooo
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Walking across ann arbor
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vibes when umich hangs
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I think instead of painting
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em @emilylevy1414
my brand of working-class
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anyone else at UMich i meet
whose number has an 810
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Conservative students respond
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Individuals believe there is no proof for wrongdoings by president,
discuss political implications of the historic proceedings for voters
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