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Letters | In hurry to impeach Trump, Democrats are hurting core US values
- Impeachment should not be a tool used for partisan aims, especially on charges as vague as those levelled against Trump. If Americans dislike Trump, they should vote him out at the elections
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Why you can trust SCMP
I disagree with your editorial of December 21 that “Core values of the United States at risk of being undermined” if the Republican-led Senate refuses to remove Donald Trump as US president following the vote for his impeachment by the Democrat-dominated House of Representatives.
On the contrary, the obviously partisan impeachment process led by the Democrats undermines a core value of the American democracy.
If Americans dislike Trump, they should vote him out through elections, not impeachment. If it became easy to impeach the US president, there is a risk that every time a Republican becomes president, Democrats will seek to impeach him, and vice versa.
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When Richard Nixon resigned as US president in 1974 during the Watergate scandal, he knew that a vast majority of the Senate and House of Representatives would vote for his impeachment.
In contrast, all Republicans who have made public their stance opposed the impeachment of Trump, while nearly all Democrats support it.
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In the late 18th century, Alexander Hamilton, one of the founding fathers of the US, warned against a partisan impeachment process. He wrote in the Federalist Papers that “the decision will be regulated more by the comparative strengths of parties, than by the real demonstrations of innocence or guilt”.
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