On September 24th, 2019, Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi announced that six total committees would begin formal impeachment inquiries. However, many high schoolers may not know what this means for our country. Trump is being questioned for the following: possible suspicious links between President Trump and Russian officials, a possible scandal where Trump allegedly coerced countries such as Ukraine to our fourth a negative narrative about the Democratic Party, as well as numerous other questionable offenses.

Impeachment is the process in which a legislator brings charges against  a civil officer of government for an offense they have committed. Contrary to what people may believe, the civil officer being impeached will stay in office until a trial is held deciding if the civil officer is guilty or not. If the civil officer is found guilty, they will be removed from office. When a president is found guilty for their offenses after being impeached, the person next in line for presidency is the Vice President. According to the constitution, impeachable offenses include, “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.” In summation, impeachment is the process by which a civil officer, such as the president, will be investigated for a crime by The House of Representatives, charged for their crimes, and judged by the Senate.

After the definition of impeachment and the offenses that can lead to impeachment are established, The House of Representatives will look at President Trump’s impeachable offenses. Once this has happened, the Senate will decide if Trump is guilty or not with the Chief of Justice of the United States residing over the case.

The offenses that President Trump may be charged with include: Obstruction of Justice, colluding with a foreign power, profiting from the presidency, violations of the emoluments clause, conspiring with others to commit and conceal crimes against the United States, abuse of the presidential pardon, undermining freedom of the press, and more.

“I think President Trump should be impeached and removed. I think he has been a disgrace to the Republican party. We need to uphold morals, and laws in the country, and he has clearly violated those laws. It would be a shame to keep him in office. I think right now the current proceedings are saying a lot about our country already. One-hundred percent of Republicans in the House of representatives have voted against moving forward with the impeachment inquiries. This is a clear case of putting one’s party over one’s country, and that is wrong. I think after Trump, whether he’s impeached or not, the country will come together and realize that politics are important, voting is important, and upholding our country’s morals is important,” said Junior Harry Paula.

Regardless of which party you support, this process is important to our entire democracy. This impeachment inquiry will change the course of United State’s history, whether he is convicted or not.