Trump Impeachment Hearings Begin

    On September 24, 2019, a formal impeachment process began for current President Donald Trump after Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi announced that six committees would undertake formal impeachment inquiries after reports about controversial interactions between Trump and the country of Ukraine. Today, November 13, 2019, the impeachment hearings began in Capitol Hill.
     The Republican Party has controlled the majority of both the House and the Senate in Trump’s previous years of presidency. Currently, the Democratic Party has control of the House, and has launched numerous investigations into Trump’s actions and finances in the past.
     In 2016, after President Trump was elected to office, the Democrats passed a bill that would require all presidents to divest any assets that could be a potential conflict of interest, and failure to do so would be considered a high crime, which could lead to possible impeachment. In fact, when Trump was elected into office, many different interests groups began efforts to impeach Trump.
     The impeachment process began in September of 2019, when an unknown whistleblower submitted a complaint to U.S. Inspector General Michael Atkinson that President Trump was attempting to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky into launching an investigation into former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter during a phone call on July 25, 2019. Joe Biden is well known for being the Vice President of the United States under the Obama administration and is also a member of the Democratic Party. It has been reported that the purpose of the phone call was to have the Ukranian government prevent corruption in their politics and how they should begin that process now. 
     On November 13, 2019, the Impeachment hearing began. George P. Kent, a senior State Department official, and William B. Taylor Jr., the top diplomat in Ukraine, were the first two witnesses to be questioned in the Impeachment hearing. Democrats and Republicans will be taking turns throughout the hearing asking questions of the witnesses.

​Reporter: Myles Witte