Editorial: Trump deserves second impeachment

Trump’s historic second impeachment is a perfectly just reaction to his actions over since the election, if not his entire presidency

President+Donald+Trump+has+been+impeached+for+a+second+time+for+inciting+insurrection%2C+but+its+hard+to+ignore+all+of+the+other+offenses+that+should+have+removed+him+from+office+far+earlier.

Gage Skidmore

President Donald Trump has been impeached for a second time for inciting insurrection, but it’s hard to ignore all of the other offenses that should have removed him from office far earlier.

Editorial Board

With less than one week remaining of Donald Trump’s presidency, the nation is divided yet again. In the wake of the riots that took place at the nation’s Capitol on January 6, Trump has been impeached by the House of Representatives a second time. We believe this is a perfectly just reaction to his entire presidency — the past two weeks events in particular.

After his first impeachment during early February of last year, Trump has yet again been accused of crimes heinous enough to land him another impeachment. This time though, instead of being accused of abusing his powers as president and obstructing Congress, he is accused of “incitement of insurrection,” or inciting American citizens to storm the capital that fateful day of January 6. Exactly one week later, was successfully impeached by the House of Representatives with a bipartisan vote of 232 to 197.

Of course, these aren’t the only reasons why he should be removed from office.

Throughout his whole time in office, Trump has said and done things that most presidents would have been held accountable for. Trump set a precedent that bigotry against minority groups is okay. He refused to condemn white supremacy and the attack on the Capitol is a show of the fact he does not care for the marginalized groups of America. He called peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters thugs while calling the domestic terrorists that entered the capitol building special. 

Along with the Presidents bigoted statements, 16 women have also accused him of sexual assult in various forms. These allegations all range from the 1980s to 2013. Yet, he denied all of these allegations as “fake news” but had no backing to support his claims the allegations were fake at all. 

During Trump’s presidency, he showed disrespect towards different groups of people. The New York Times collected a list of tweets insulting the people, the media, and other countries. Someone who doesn’t want to represent the people of America as a whole shouldn’t have been the president at all. 

At the end of the day, Trump did incite violence at the Capitol, which has led to 5 total deaths, dozens of arrests, and further calls for violence. In a rally before the riot, Trump said, “We are going to the Capitol,” which kicked off the siege. Trump may have not have explicitly encouraged violence, but his supporters broke windows in the Capitol, threatened the media, attacked police, destroyed the inside of the building, and called for the murder of legislators and Vice President Mike Pence — all in Trump’s name.

The President stood up for his supporters, calling them “beautiful people,” and the actions they were taking although he knew it was wrong. Because he incited violence at the Capitol which led to his impeachment and bans from social media platforms, it was the right decision for the House of Representatives to ensure someone with so much power cannot cause violence at this level again.