The Trump Impeachment Hearings Begin

Millions of Americans will tune into the impeachment hearings today focused on President Trump’s handling of military aid to Ukraine and his apparent attempt to tie that aid to his request that the Ukrainian government investigate his political rival, former Vice-President Joe Biden.

“President Trump’s erratic, impulsive decisions threaten our national security and set our world on edge,” Biden tweeted. “Every day that he sits in the Oval Office is a dangerous day for the United States.”

Biden is running for President in 2020 and has seen his lead as the Democratic frontrunner erode in the weeks since the scandal began. Biden’s son, Hunter, sat on the board of a Ukrainian natural gas company investigated for corruption. The younger Biden has been cleared of wrongdoing but describes his decision to accept the board post as “poor judgment.”

A whistleblower with information about the President’s phone call with Ukrainian leader, Volodymyr Zelensky, filed a complaint questioning Trump’s suggestion that if Zelensky investigated Biden his country would receive the $400 million in military aid approved in the 2019 federal budget. Democrats say the President abused his power with the “quid pro quo” maneuver and allege Trump held up the money until September 11 which was two days after the Inspector General received the whistleblower’s complaint. The President has since demanded the release of the whistleblower’s identity.

Democrats have proceeded methodically with the impeachment process. This is only the third time in modern American history an impeachment hearing has been held. In 1974 President Richard Nixon resigned before he was impeached while President Bill Clinton was impeached in October 1998 in the House of Representatives but acquitted of the charges by the Senate the following February. Polls indicate the country is sharply divided over the hearings.