Simplest solution is to defeat Trump by a wide margin in 2020

To The Daily Sun,

Many progressives and liberals are calling for President Trump’s impeachment and many ran for Congress on that promise. This is quite understandable. A president, however, cannot be impeached just because Congress does not like his policies; there must be evidence that the president has committed an actual crime or, as the Constitution puts it, “bribery, treason, high crimes or misdemeanors.”

While the idea of impeaching Trump is certainly attractive, is it the best strategy? Might it be a waste of time and money? After all, only two presidents have ever been impeached and in both cases, the president saved his job.

Impeachment is a two-step process. Articles of impeachment are passed by the House of Representatives and then the president goes on trial for his job in the Senate with the senators acting as a jury and the chief justice serving as the judge. The Senate can only fire a president. It cannot send him to jail but a president is still subject to the ordinary judicial process.

While passing articles of impeachment would be easy, requiring only a majority vote, it is highly unlikely that the Senate would have the 2/3 majority to remove Trump from office. If the Senate removed him, Vice President Pence would simply become president and in many ways, he is much more dangerous. Furthermore, it is quite likely that Pence would grant Trump a blanket pardon for any crimes.

It would be a better use of the House’s time to continue to thoroughly investigate Trump, his administration, his business empire, and his campaign. Moreover, the criminal investigations by the FBI should continue.

They should also concentrate on preventing Trump from doing further damage to our nation and trying to undo the damage already done. We also need to vote Trump out in 2020. The right is very united. The left needs to be just as united. After all, liberals and progressives share partial blame for Trump’s 2016 victory. The person who replaces Trump should be someone with the guts not to grant him a pardon!

Trump needs to be defeated by a large majority, both by the popular vote and the electoral vote. There must be no doubt he is soundly defeated and legally defeated because it is quite possible that if he loses, he will not accept the election results and again accuse the Democrats of voter fraud. It is a scary time and scarier because our country has seldom faced this big of a Constitutional crisis.

E. Scott Cracraft

Gilford