Investigations against Trump are justified, not a “witch hunt”

By RAVI MAKAM

Staff Writer

This past week, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi began an impeachment inquiry into President Donald J. Trump.  Like the majority of his responses, the president’s comment was delivered in a simple tweet: “End the Witch Hunt now!”

The actions of President Trump displayed over the past three and a half years show a consistent trend of putting the self over the country.

The Mueller Report was completed this past March, and a redacted version was released to the public on April 18, 2019. While President Trump mocked the report and said it was a partisan hit job, he failed to remember that Robert Mueller himself was a Republican who was appointed to the national scene when George W. Bush made him the United States Deputy Attorney General in 2001.

The Mueller Report outlined ten instances of possible obstruction of justice. Firing FBI Director James Comey at the beginning of his investigation into Trump and making an effort to prevent certain pieces of evidence from reaching the public were two obstructions addressed.

Even after the whole public testimony of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, some American people still believe the investigation was a witch hunt. Some are still wondering how people could continue to support Trump, and it is not a simple answer. It could be attributed to lack of awareness, or because the President uses his Twitter to spread false attacks and Fox News pushes the narrative in the President’s favor.

The release of the Mueller Report is not the only instance in which the term “witch hunt” was used. This past week news broke that a whistleblower report was filed to the Inspector General about the potential abuse of power. This time the response was the same from Trump, but the polls slowly moved in favor of impeachment from the American public.

This says a lot about the type of behavior that the President has been apart of, not just during his 2016 campaign until this week, but since Trump became a business mogul.

Trump has always gotten himself into shady business dealings. He’s made a habit of deflecting from the main issue at hand, whether it be not releasing his tax returns or going on Twitter to blow off some steam at 4 a.m.

In an article released in May of this year by “The New Yorker,” John Cassidy said, “Trump’s core businesses racked up losses of more than a billion dollars in a ten-year period.” This is the type of action that is common for Trump to partake in: making the media and people believe that you’re the richest and best businessman in the world when in reality you are quite literally the worst.

This is especially dangerous when the President used his “success” as a businessman to supplement why Americans should vote for him.

When asked about if the view of Trump’s business impacted his view of the election in 2016, senior English major Joe Langley responded, “ at first I thought it would be interesting to have someone with a business background run the country, but over time with information about his taxes and bankruptcies…it made me question if it is really a good idea to run the country like a Trump Casino.”

Langley’s sentiment reflects how a lot of people are feeling now. Especially the independent voter, to have a sitting President begin to abuse his power to cover up his taxes and crimes he has committed.

The question of impeachment has arisen and it should be done. It should be done for two main reasons: to open up investigations and look deeper into Trump’s financial record, and because we have impeached presidents before, just for mere social issues. His actions set a precedent that would make open abuses of power okay as well as using political positions to turn personal business profits.

Senior communication and digital studies major Alex Caldas said, “I believe the impeachment inquiry is valid…Trump has been completely unjust throughout his presidency and was bound to do something to get him impeached from the very start.” Caldas also stated that Trump likely doesn’t know what most of the laws are, so he won’t even know he broke them. That’s why the President feels like it’s a “witch hunt.”

Only Trump would ask a favor from the Ukrainian president to have them investigate his political opponents while withholding aid to the country.

Even after all the Mueller investigation, one would think Trump would act differently. Through the last three years, it has become apparent that all the noise coming from the White House that the investigations are no witch hunt, but a fight to preserve the sacred office that the president holds. The president should put the country before politics. The best interests of the people first, not himself.
Only the guilty go to great lengths to cover up their crimes