A Cornell University Political Science Professor is not surprised that Donald Trump was impeached a second time because early polling suggested that more people were in favor of it this time. Doug Kriner also serves as the Faculty Director of the Institute of Politics and Global Affairs based at the university.
He isn’t sure how much more the impeachment may divide the American people and thinks it was necessary for elected officials to act.
“There are some other options but, impeachment clearly is a clear constitutional mechanism at their disposal to respond to something that is truly unprecedented in our history.”
Kriner says the time is now for lawmakers to continue to send a clear message about the actions carried out on January 6th by rioters in our nations’ Capitol and precipitated by Trump. Kriner adds the statements a leader of a country is communicating to his supporters really matters and it caused the President’s base to question how the government is structured.
“Until you fix that it’s going to be awfully hard to repair some of the fundamental damage that’s been done and the chasm that’s opened up on what used to be widely held core tenet of democratic governance in the United States.”
The professor says other President’s like Trump have also taken their election losses very poorly and were unwilling to work with the incoming administration. He says that Richard Nixon resigned and issued a pardon which spared a long, drawn out process for the country.
