Baruch students react to the impeachment of Trump

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Phil Roeder | Wikimedia Commons

Amanda Salazar, Editor-in-Chief

U.S. President Donald Trump was impeached on Dec. 18 in the House of Representatives on abuse of power and obstruction of Congress charges. This occurred after news that Trump had attempted to solicit foreign interference from Ukraine came to light, making the current election season reminiscent of the one that got him elected to his first term in office.

It was reported that Trump requested the Ukrainian government to investigate former vice president and current Democratic presidential nominee candidate Joseph Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, in an effort to get information that can be used against the older Biden during the 2020 general presidential election.

Biden has been one of the frontrunners of the Democratic race since the beginning of the campaigning season, likely the reason Trump chose to investigate him as opposed to any other candidate.

Trump withheld American military aid to Ukraine and a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a way to bribe him into agreeing to conduct the investigation into the Biden family.

The second charge, that of obstruction, was a result of Trump trying to hinder the impeachment inquiry by instructing officials in his administration to ignore Congress’s subpoenas for testimonies and documents.

The House voted 230 to 197 in favor of the articles of impeachment against the president over his and his administration’s attempts to get foreign interference and intelligence in the 2020 presidential election, making him the third president to be impeached.

Representatives then voted on the second charge — that of obstruction — and the vote came down to 229 to 198 to approve the article.

Despite longstanding calls for impeachment from many Democrats and even some Republicans since he was elected, there are mixed reactions to it now that it has actually happened.

Baruch College students are no exception to this, where the more liberal ideology of New York City meets the somewhat more conservative perspective of people involved with the business field.

Even though Trump was impeached over a month ago, it is still a hot topic around the Baruch campus, and some Bearcats shared their opinions of the impeachment with The Ticker.

“I’m very much liberal, so I don’t believe in anything that Donald Trump has done so far, and I especially am very particular about how there’s so many human rights violations that have been done during his campaign and his tenure as president, so I’m totally not a Trump fan,” Baruch’s Undergraduate Student Government President Dakshatha Daggala shared with The Ticker in an interview.

“It was very much a surprise when I first heard about [the impeachment] because I didn’t think that the House would actually go through with it.  I think the basis for it is kind of deplorable on the part of our president.”

Daggala went on to explain her thoughts, an interesting perspective since she herself is a president, though on an admittedly smaller scale than Trump.

“I mean, it’s like weird to compare myself to the president of the United States, but, like, even in the lowest level of USG, the president is expected to act a certain way and make sure you’re representing your organization in the best way,” she said.

On the other hand, the school’s more right-leaning students feel differently about the subject.

“I don’t support impeachment because I don’t believe Trump has committed any crimes,” sophomore Maxim Milonovich said. “He ordered a probe of Biden’s son because he was questioning why the ex-vice president’s son had ties to the Ukrainian government.

In my opinion, Trump hasn’t done anything wrong by asking what foreign influence the Ukrainian government has on ours.”

Other students, such as USG Representative Sen. Andres Aguirre, said that he feels the impeachment was deserved.

“I don’t like the guy and he’s really [messing] up the communities I care about with stuff like the public charge rule,” Aguirre said.

“I think he’s probably guilty about the Ukraine deal and Republicans don’t want to impeach him because they’re in the pockets of special interests.”