I recently watched the first day of the public impeachment hearings. In the course of the day, I frequently heard the Republican position that this decision should be left to the vote of the people in the election, which is now just a year away.
Of course, that was essentially Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s position until this latest fiasco. It was my position also. What changed?
After three years of hearing of extensive Russian interference in the 2016 election, we now have clear evidence from multiple reliable sources that the president attempted to coerce another foreign government to corrupt the outcome of the 2020 election in his favor.
It is the president’s attack on the very viability of our next election as an arbiter of his conduct that changes what must be done now. The president’s job is to defend the independence of our elections from outside foreign influence, not to invite it for his own political gain, while using the full power of his presidency to do so.
This must end now. The president cannot be counted upon to honor the essential promise of his oath: to defend and protect the Constitution of the United States. Our elections are sacred and essential to our democracy. Asking a foreign power to get involved in them for his political gain is reprehensible and it justifies Donald Trump being the first president in our history to be removed from office.
Mark Petersen, Park City
