On Wednesday, December 18, the House of Representatives impeached President Donald Trump. The House voted on two articles of impeachment: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The impeachment inquiry began on August 24 after the House intelligence committee released a whistleblower complaint regarding an alleged phone call Trump had with Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky about investigating Hunter Biden, son of former Vice President Joe Biden.
Impeachment is Congress’s power to remove federal officials such as the president if lawmakers find that the official has committed “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors,” according to the Constitution. The official’s action is not necessarily a crime, but it involves the abuse of power of the office. Two former presidents have been impeached: Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton. Richard Nixon resigned before the impeachment trial due to the Watergate scandal. 

The Parker History Department presented on the history and process of impeachment during their MX on December 2. Upper School history teachers Andrew Bigelow, Dan Greenstone, Susan Elliot, Otis Pope, and Middle School history teacher Anthony Shaker talked about why the founding fathers created impeachment, the process of impeachment, and which presidents have been impeached. “I felt like the whole community got a really nice foundation for understanding what impeachment is and how we’ve treated in the past,” Upper School history teacher Jeanne Barr said. 

“Our constitution was created to protect us from an authoritarian autocrat and the idea was to create a series of checks and balances,” Bigelow said. “So the goal here was if we feel that a leader or a member of the executive branch is exceeding their authority or abusing their authority and the Constitution, we have the right to bring them up on articles of impeachment to decide whether they’ve committed a crime of treason or high crimes and misdemeanors.”

In 2014, Hunter Biden joined the board for a Ukrainian oil and gas company. In 2018, Trump agreed to give $250 million in aid to Ukraine. During a phone call between Trump and Zelenzky, Trump allegedly suggested that Zelensky should investigate corruption within the Bidens’ involvement in Ukraine. Politico later reported that Trump delayed the delivery of aid to Ukraine. “Many have argued that the President has abused his power as president in negotiating financial assistance to military aid to Ukraine,” Bigelow said. “And because he asked the President of Ukraine to investigate the son of his potential opposition in the next election, and because many argue that that is out of bounds and is not the role of the President, he’s abused his power. So, therefore, he’s been impeached.”

On September 9 House Democrats began an investigation regarding Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani’s actions. On the same day, Inspector General Michael Atkinson informed the House Intelligence Committee of a whistleblower complaint. The Washington Post revealed that the whistleblower complaint was about the call, alleging that Trump made promises to foreign leaders. The White House later released notes from the call, which revealed Trump allegedly asked Zelensky to investigate Hunter Biden. 

During Parker’s student government Senate on December 4, senior Ian Shayne, junior Nathalie San Fratello, and junior Matthew Garchik presented on the current impeachment. They talked about what happened and what was to come and then opened the dialogue to questions and comments about the impeachment. Adriana Cardona-Maguigad, an education reporter from WBEZ, visited during Senate for a segment on how schools are covering the impeachment. Students in Barr’s Civil Liberties class created a Google Slides presentation for high schoolers that summarizes and explains the impeachment. “I thought the students did a really great job of breaking a very large topic down into pieces and then empowering each other to go be the researchers for it,” Barr said.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced the beginning of a formal impeachment investigation on September 24. Part of the impeachment process is to subpoena the people involved. A subpoena is a written request for documents or to appear in a legal proceeding. The House subpoenaed multiple officials and others relating to the call. Multiple ambassadors and other officials, including US Ambassador Gordon Sondland and Marie Yovanovitch, testified. During this time, acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney admitted to a quid pro quo – which is a deal exchanging something such as a favor for something of equivalent value –  of Ukrainian aid and a probe of the 2016 election. Trump later retracted the statement, saying there was “absolutely no quid pro quo,” but Sondland later testified that there was one. Throughout the impeachment process, the House subpoenaed and called the White House to testify, which they did not do. “Trump refused to cooperate,” Upper School history teacher Jeanne Barr said. “He coordinated efforts to release misinformation and he made it much more difficult for the Senate and the House in the Congress to do their constitutional duty to uncover the truth.”

On October 31, the House adopted the impeachment resolution, which approves the procedure for the impeachment inquiry. After closed-door testimonies and public hearings focused on the “constitutional grounds for presidential impeachment,” the Judiciary Committee wrote impeachment articles charging Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The House Judiciary Committee voted to advance the articles on December 18 and later that day, the House voted to impeach Trump after 10 hours of debate. The House voted 230-197 on the article of impeachment regarding abuse of power and 229-198 on the article regarding obstruction of Congress, both of which were voted mostly along party lines other than one Republican who voted for the first article. 

“We’re seeing the exact opposite of what we teach our students on how to handle confrontation, how to address the other side, how to challenge assumptions, how to hold people accountable, and how to seek out truth and justice,” said Shaker. 

Sixth Grade history teacher Keedra Gibba discusses impeachment in her class through Kahoot games, studying why Trump has been impeached and examining how the impeachment is impacting the election. Principal Dan Frank and Head of Intermediate and Middle Schools John Novick spoke to six graders about bipartisanship in terms of the impeachment. 

Students in Bigelow’s sophomore and junior classes discuss impeachment during daily current events presentations. Upper School history teacher Dan Greenstone’s class is following the impeachment through weekly current events discussions. “What I find is really helpful is that Mr. Shaker had a terrific slide in our impeachment MX, which showed every stage of the process, including the drafting of the articles, the vote in a committee, the vote of the full House, and then the trial and so forth,” Greenstone said. “What I’ve been doing is updating as we progress up that chart and students, I think, find that a useful way to follow a complicated story.”

On January 15, the House voted to appoint nine impeachment managers for the Senate Trial, and these impeachment managers delivered the impeachment articles to the Senate. Chief Justice John Roberts is the judge for the trial and US senators are the jury members. The US senators took oath January 16, marking the start of the trial. To remove an official after a Senate trial, two-thirds of the Senate, which is 67 votes, must vote to remove. No president that has been impeached has been convicted. “I feel impeachment is something that is needed and is well deserved, but I’m not convinced that it should be happening. In today’s US Senate, Trump won’t be removed, and it will only help his reelection chances,” sophomore Eli Moog said. “In my opinion, Democrats should be more concerned about nominating somebody who actually beats Trump, than impeaching a Republican in a Republican Senate.”

If Trump is convicted, he will be removed from the office immediately and Vice President Mike Pence will take over the presidency. The Senate will then go into a second vote which will decide whether Trump will be allowed to run for president again. “I have no predictions, but I worry, like many, for the health and well-being of our republic,” Novick said. “I think we should all be able to band together, whatever our ideologies or politics, around fair, transparent, and just processes in our government. We owe our allegiance to valid and equitable processes, not to individual leaders.”