Britt Bardman
Staff Writer
Trump’s recent acquittal, expansion of the travel ban and State of the Union address sent America into a full-fledged political hurricane last week.
At the State of the Union address, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tore up the President’s speech after he rejected her handshake, which may make it seem like political bias is at an all time high.
On Wednesday, the Republican-controlled Senate acquitted President Trump on both the House’s charges, abuse of power and obstruction of justice. The charges were centered around Trump withholding US military aid from Ukraine to pressure its leaders to investigate Vice President Joe Biden and his Democratic rivals, and obstructing the investigation into the matter.
Republicans seem certain the impeachment trial will not scathe Trump- if anything, it might help him in the 2020 election.
“We’re gonna crush it… I don’t think that’s a question,” said Bridget Delany, head of the Young Republicans club at the University of Wyoming.
Senator Mitt Romney (R-U.T.) was the sole Republican who voted with Democrats to convict Trump, becoming the first senator in the nation’s history to do so.
“Things can happen when you fail so badly,” said Trump, quoted by USA Today. “I’m sorry about Mitt Romney.”
Romney was alone in casting his vote to convict, but a handful of Senate Republicans, including Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska concluded that Trump’s actions were wrong, but the charges did not merit removing a president.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) disagreed.
“The president sought to cheat people out of a free and fair election,” he said to Politico. “How could such an offense not be deemed a high crime?”
The failed Democrat-led effort to subpoena additional witnesses and documents is partly how.
Delany said the impeachment “wasn’t properly done, it was the congress’ job to bring witnesses. That wasn’t the Senate’s responsibility.”
The story of the Senate’s impeachment trial speaks to the rampant partisanship in Washington. The President’s State of the Union address last Tuesday confirmed that tensions among party lines are only rising.
Pelosi chose to introduce the president by saying “Members of Congress, the President of the United States,” bypassing the traditional introduction: “Members of Congress, I have the high privilege and distinct honor of presenting to you the President of the United States.”
Delany said there needs to be more give and take on both sides of the aisle.
“We need to work on getting more moderate candidates in.”
Kennedy Penn-O’Toole lectures in the School of Politics, Public Affairs and International Studies at the University of Wyoming. She said partisanship is a trend that has been happening for 40 years, “and it just continues to worsen.” Without anyone in the middle, fostering cooperation and passing legislation becomes a challenge.
In his speech, Trump emphasized the strong economy and declared that “the state of our union is stronger than ever before.”
Attempting to set himself up for success in the upcoming election, Trump labeled Democrats who supported universal healthcare as socialists and talked about his support for historically black colleges, school vouchers and “opportunity zone” tax breaks for investment in low-income neighborhoods to gain support from African-American voters.
National Public Radio (NPR) reports that a recent Washington Post-Ipsos poll found that 8 in 10 black Americans say they believe Trump is “a racist,” and 9 in 10 disapprove of his job performance.
The nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, was presented to Rush Limbaugh by first lady Melania Trump in the middle of Trump’s address. Despite his past comments on race, the conservative talk radio host received a standing ovation from Republicans present, while Democrats present remained seated.
There was no mention of Trump’s decision to add six countries to the travel ban in his address. Nigeria, Eritrea, Sudan, Tanzania, Kyrgystan and Myanmar were banned after government officials “cited security concerns from the move, saying the countries on the travel ban aren’t complying with U.S. security requirements for passports and information sharing,” NPR reports. In this iteration, the travel ban does not apply to refugees, students or tourists, but will prevent people from those countries from being able to move to the US permanently.
“We need to be very careful when we talk about immigration; we are a country of immigrants,” Delany said. “I have friends who are DACA [Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals] recipients…but we need to be really careful and prioritize safety.”
America is about to undergo an intense election season, and Trump’s actions that led to the impeachment trial show the overarching sentiment is already fearful and intense. Penn-O’Toole acknowledged the harsh language, especially around immigration.
“The culture of fear is a lot stronger now than it was just 5 or 10 years ago,” she said.After the third impeachment trial in our nation’s history and Trump’s State of the Union address last week, America is moving on to decide who should lead our country next. As the election season heats up, the effects of the impeachment trial, immigration ban and other policies prioritized by Trump and his administration will become clear.
