Wednesday, Dec. 18, President Donald J. Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives making him the third president in United States history to be impeached.

The 230 to 197 vote followed largely along party lines.

But many voters argue it will never get through the Senate, which is dominated by the Republicans. This argument is fueled by the fact that most Senate members don’t want Trump impeached, let alone out of office.

Impeachment is when the House of Representatives votes for majority to address the validity of one or more impeachment articles, also known as major crimes. A common misconception is that an impeachment can remove an official from office, but it just leads to the official potentially being removed from office down the road. This can be done by the Senate which is now determining the next phase of the process.

The impeachment is due to the recent military conflict between Ukraine and Russia. In that time period, Russia attacked Ukraine several times. The U.S. had already been helping Ukraine with their military, and at one point in time, the military help promised by Congress stopped going to them. A widely considered theory is that in search of a solution, president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky called Trump and asked for the military assistance to continue arriving. Trump accepted, as long as Ukraine did a check on Joe Biden, a rival of Trump in the 2020 Presidential Election, and his son, Hunter Biden. The President is accusing

Hunter Biden of getting an unfair job, just because his dad was vice president at the time.

Hunter Biden even admitted that he probably wouldn’t get the job if his dad wasn’t vice president. Although that would be bad for Biden’s campaign, bribing another country to interfere with an election process is considered by many as even worse.

This incident has sparked an explosion, otherwise known as the impeachment process trying to remove Trump.
Marie Yovanovitch was the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. Trump has been accused of intimidating Yovanovitch, who was fired in Ukraine so Trump could do his dealings without her telling other people.

During Yovanovitch’s testimony, Trump has tweeted rude and hateful things about her, along with saying she is “going to go through some things,” on a call with President Zelensky. Even worse, this can be taken as indirectly telling a witness to not tell by planting a seed of fear in their mind. In the U.S. government’s eyes, getting a government official out of the way so a highly ranked person can abuse power is a very serious offense.

On the other hand, both Yovanovitch and Zelensky claim to have no knowledge of withheld military help, and Zelensky claims there never was a quid pro quo, or an exchange of goods for services, in the first place.

With one side saying things and the other denying them, no accusations have been proven true. Therefore, no side is “winning,” and the even polls on the matter support this.

The impeachment trial is scheduled to begin in January.