Recently, inquiries about Trump’s impeachment have been flooding major media outlets and causing many discussions. But what exactly is impeachment, and what would happen if Trump got impeached?

This is a mystery to numerous middle-schoolers. When asking Bria Singleton, an eighth-grader at McAuliffe Middle School, whether she knows what happens in the process of impeachment, she stated, “Yeah, the president is fired and the vice president takes his place. [The president has to] do something bad and then they get impeached, right?” She added, “The people decide whether he should be impeached, I think.”

The history of impeachment is a long one. It dates back to the Founding Fathers and their development of the Constitution in 1787. Our Founding Fathers made it purposefully difficult to remove the president from office. They set up only three scenarios in which someone could be evicted from the presidential position: bribery, treason, and crimes.

When a president commits one of the previously mentioned impeachment-worthy offenses, it’s up to the House of Representatives and the Senate to handle the rest. 

“The House of Representatives debate the cause of impeachment,” Valerie Miller, an eighth-grade history teacher, explains. “If they determine there’s enough evidence and pass the bill of impeachment, the Senate listens to the evidence and decides whether they should move the president or not.”

Trump’s impeachment query was opened because there were suspicions that he had secret communications with foreign governments to aid him in the 2020 election. That would fall under treason in the constitution. 

Whether or not Trump will be impeached is still up in the air. Some suspect it will come to fruition, especially after it was revealed that President Trump had secret phone calls with Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky. Allegedly, their conversation included the discussion of democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.

Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, is the woman at the head of the impeachment inquiry. The House is currently conducting an examination on Trump so that they can make their final decision. Meanwhile, Trump has come out and stated that he wants to sue Pelosi and Rep. Adam Schiff, the man at the head of the Central Intelligence Committee. Trump was then told that he couldn’t sue Schiff for his descriptions of the Ukraine phone call.

“Sue him anyway. Even if we lose, the American people will understand,” President Trump said, in regards to Schiff. “Sue Nancy Pelosi. Or maybe we should just impeach them. Because they’re lying and what they’re doing is a terrible thing for our country.”

Trump is the third president to have an investigation started due to an impeachment inquiry. The other two presidents who were nominated for impeachment were Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon. Neither of them were ultimately voted out of office.

No matter what happens in regards to President Trump, one thing is for certain: his impeachment examination and the many statements made during it will definitely be remembered by American citizens. Whether that’s positively or negatively will depend on the results and President Trump’s actions afterwards.