Trump Nears Impeachment, Caribbean Nationals May Witness History

A fresh generation of Caribbean immigrants in the United States are on the verge of witnessing the impeachment of an American president, a monumental political process done only three times before in U.S. history.

The majority Democratic lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives late last month voted to approve a resolution formalizing an impeachment inquiry targeting Donald Trump, which could possibly result in the removal of the president from the office.

The House, which assigned a committee to take depositions from potential witnesses in recent weeks, voted mostly along party lines - 232 (all Democrats and one independent) to196 (all Republicans plus two Democrats) - to approve a resolution that will ensure open hearings to determine if Trump violated the oath of president while dealing with the nation of Ukraine.

Following the public hearings, the House will have the option to vote on impeaching the president. If it does, the U.S. Senate will then hold a trial to decide if the president should be removed from office.

PRAISE

Caribbean American lawmakers immediately praised the House vote to investigate Trump, convinced he has committed acts which meet th“McCarthy” e impeachment bar of high crimes and misdemeanors.

“Reminder: no one is above the law, including the president of the United States,” tweeted Senator Kamala Harris, daughter of a Jamaica father, who is campaigning for the Democratic nomination to possibly face Trump in the Nov. 2020 presidential election.

“I’ve been a vocal proponent of impeaching Donald Trump since 2017,” U.S. Congresswoman Yvette Clarke, daughter of Jamaican parents, declared in a statement, “and this latest law-breaking incident only validates my beliefs that we must move forward in impeaching Donald J. Trump from the highest office in our country.”

The last U.S. president to be impeached was Bill Clinton. However, he was not removed from office following a 1998-99 trial in the Senate. During the 30 years since that vote, Caribbean nationals in the U.S. have increased steadily.Some three million Caribbean immigrants were in the U.S. in 2000, according to the Migration Policy Institute (MPI), a Washington, D.C.-

based think tank. By 2017, MPI reported, the number had risen to 4.4 million.

Up to press time, most of the top public opinion polls showed a split among U.S. residents, with nearly half (49 percent) of those asked willing to support the president’s impeachment and removal from office and a similar number opposed.

POWER ABUSE

Among the allegations against Trump is that he abused the power of his office by deliberately withholding aid to Ukraine authorized by the U.S. Congress unless the European nation investigated a political opponent, in this case former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.

“Pelosi” The Trump administration has accused Hunter Biden of corruption because he accepted a lucrative job with a private company in Ukraine while his father was vice president. Trump and his supporters have offered no evidence to back their corruption allegations, which were previously debunked by federal investigators, including some who worked in Trump’s administration.

The behind-closed-doors depositions, part of investigations into Trump and his administration, followed a report by a whistleblower, which pointed to Trump’s possible violation of the law and abuse of power during his dealings with Ukraine. Statements have been taken from multiple witnesses, including those who listened in on Trump’s telephone call with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky. A bulk of the testimony, including those from career non-political diplomats, appear damning for Trump, which confirmed the U.S. president did off a quid pro quo, an accusation Trump has repeatedly denied in public.

RULES

The House’s resolution makes clear the rules under which the impeachment process will be conducted. It also allows the House to push harder to obtain information previously withheld by the Trump-led White House.

However, several members of Trump’s administration, including at least one Cabinet secretary and his chief of staff, have refused to testify before the House committee. Some even defiedHouse subpoenas.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the impeachment inquiry a search for the “truth.

“What is at stake in all of this is nothing less than our democracy,” Pelosi said.

Meanwhile, Republicans claim impeachment process is only about removing Trump from office because, they believe, he will win re-election in the 2020 election.

“This impeachment is not only an attempt to undo the last election, it is an attempt to influence the next one as well,” said House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who claimed the president did nothing impeachable during his call with Zelensky.

Public impeachment hearings could start within weeks.