Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives on December 18th, 2019. On the grounds of, “solicited foreign interference in the 2020 U.S. presidential election to help his re-election bid, and then obstructed the inquiry itself by telling his administration officials to ignore subpoenas for documents and testimony.” [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impeachment_of_Donald_Trump]. Now that Trump has been impeached he is being tried by the Senate to determine if he should be removed from office. 

If you are unfamiliar with the Trump impeachment here’s some background. Trump had a phone call meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky where he decided to withhold US aid from Ukraine in their fight against Russia. The aid was withheld from Ukraine after Trump allegedly asked Ukraine to do research on Joe Biden to potentially hurt his 2020 campaign trial. After the case was brought forward Nancy Pelosi, the current speaker of the house decided to start the impeachment process on September 19th, 2019. Currently, in 2020 Trump has been impeached but is in the middle of a trial by Senate. There are many differing opinions by both Republicans and Democrats as to whether he should be impeached. However, to combat Democrat’s claims Republicans say, “Ukraine’s president said he felt no pressure, Ukrainians were unaware the aid was held back, and US military aid was eventually released.” [https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/23/us/politics/ukraine-aid-freeze-impeachment.html].

What’s challenging about the impeachment trial is it can be really hard to follow. As it is a confusing situation in itself and many people simply don’t have time to keep up with it. When asked if it was difficult for him to keep up with the impeachment trial freshman Keith Williams said, “Yes, I mean I have no idea what’s going on.” Similarly, senior Colby King said, “Seems like such a waste of time, I like to think of politics as if it affects my day to day life, that does not affect my day to day life at all.” Instead, King thinks it’s important to focus on local legislature saying, “I try to look at leadership as how it affects my day to day life. First of all, Trump has not had one negative impact on my day to day life when I go to school nothing wrong. Like the school bond the school bond will affect me because I’m gonna have to pay for that if I want to live in Arlington in 10 years.” Overall, it’s hard to have an informed opinion on the situation unless you have had the time to keep up with the trial since day one. What’s concerning, however, is the deep divide between Democrats and Republicans on the issue. Both sides have such a hatred for one another that it is difficult to avoid bias in the trial. When interviewed on the subject Mr. Copenhaver a government teacher at AHS said, “Well I guess we don’t have much choice but to trust them to do it right you know to follow what they see the evidence going towards and whether they think that’s a reasonable thing to be kicked out of office for. A two-party system has served us well for a long time… but it does seem to be breaking down a little bit.” 

In the end, the members of the White House made the right decision having a concern about our president and deciding to report it. However, in doing this it’s important to make sure he is being tried for the right reasons, as that would otherwise tarnish the credibility among Democrats and Republicans.