The New York Times editorial board calls for Trump's impeachment
- Over the past several weeks, editorial boards at well-regarded news organizations have begun calling for President Donald Trump's impeachment.
- On Saturday, the editorial board at The New York Times joined the conversation when they published a piece titled "Impeach."
- "By stonewalling as no previous president has, Donald Trump has left Congress with no choice but to press ahead to a Senate trial," the paper's editorial board said.
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The New York Times has joined a growing list of prominent newspapers and publications that are openly calling for the impeachment of President Donald Trump.
On Saturday, the paper's editorial board — which is made up of a team of opinion journalists separate from reporters in the newsroom — published an opinion piece titled "Impeach."
The piece opened up citing the most recent events in the escalating impeachment proceedings: the two articles of impeachment the House Judiciary Committee voted to approve on Friday.
The editorial board wrote that the articles of impeachment told a "short, simple and damning story," which involved Trump abusing the power of his office "by strong-arming Ukraine, a vulnerable ally, holding up hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid until it agreed to help him influence the 2020 election by digging up dirt on a political rival."
"When caught in the act, he rejected the very idea that a president could be required by Congress to explain and justify his actions...He made it impossible for Congress to carry out fully its constitutionally mandated oversight role," the piece went on to say as it described the article of impeachment charging Trump with obstruction of Congress.
Though the Times' board was somewhat critical of the rapid pace of the impeachment inquiry into Trump, it offered an even more forceful rebuke of the president's "stonewalling" of Congress throughout the process — and his refusal to offer a formal defense.
"By stonewalling as no previous president has, Donald Trump has left Congress with no choice but to press ahead to a Senate trial," the paper's editorial board said.
The board also mentioned that there were arguably grounds for impeachment discussions within the early stages of Trump's presidency.
"Mr. Trump has been committing arguably impeachable offenses since the moment he entered the Oval Office," they wrote, going on to reference the president's "acceptance of foreign money at his many businesses, his violations of campaign-finance law in paying hush money to a woman who claimed to have had a sexual affair with him, and his obstructions of justice in the Russia investigation."
The Times' editorial board said that for any number of reasons House Democrats decided not to move forward with impeachment in these instances, but finally did so with regard to the president's Ukraine dealings because the whistleblower complaint that sparked the scandal "sounded an alarm that he was seeking to subvert the next election, depriving the voters of their right to check his behavior."
The piece goes on to cut through various defenses of Trump's behavior from Republicans, contending that they "fall flat in the face of the evidence."
The last line of the piece makes it clear that the editorial board at The Times believes the decision to impeach and therefore defend both the "Constitution and the Republic" is in the hands of the House of Representatives.
- Read more:
- House Democrats unveil 2 articles of impeachment against Trump, charging him with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress
- Here are the articles of impeachment against Trump and what each one means
- What comes next in the House's impeachment inquiry into Trump