Question

U.S. IMPEACHMENTBy Ursula HacketPresident Donald Trump's business dealings, unhinged [malucos] tweets and conflicts of Interest, coupled with lurid sexual allegations and whispers of Russian links have led some to dream that impeachment could bejust around the corner. The chatter started even before he took office, and by January's end half a million people had signed the “Impeach Trump Now" petition. It's all very wishful thinking.Article II, Section 4 of the US Constitution states: "The President, Vice President and all civil officers... shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. ” The House of Representatives must vote upon an impeachment resolution and the Judiciary Committee conduct an Investigation. If the House then accepts the impeachment charges, the action moves to the Senate, where a trial takes place. To convict an impeached president a full two-thirds of the Senate must find him guilty. The first of these steps (Committee investigation) has taken place three times: in 1868 (President Andrew Johnson), 1974 (Richard Nixon) and 1998 (Bill Clinton). The second (House vote and Senate trial), twice— for Presidents Johnson and Clinton, but not Nixon, who resigned before trial. The third (conviction) has never taken place.In conscious opposition to the ancient maxim"the king can do no wrong," the Founding Fathers created a presidency that was not shielded from responsibility for wrongdoing. In early Constitutional drafts only treason and bribery were impeachable. One founder - George Mason - suggested adding "maladministration," but James Madison objected that this loose formulation would hand a weapon to politically-motivated enemies of the president. They compromised with "high crimes and misdemeanors." But Madison's fears proved well founded: Impeachment has never truly been a legal process, and always a political one. The political battleground? Defining "high crimes and misdemeanors."Unlike well-defined treason or bribery, the "high crimes" test is entirely elastic. The President's supporters take a restrictive view, his opponents an expansive one. Presidents may wish things were clearer, and sometimes claim that they are. 'You don't have to be a constitutional lawyer to know that the constitution is very precise in defining what is an impeachable offence," whimpered a besieged Nixon In 1974. But he was wrong: the Founders did not specify a list of specific offences, nor even require any actual criminal offence be proved. His successor, Gerald Ford, was closer to the truth when he claimed that "an Impeachable offence is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers it to be at a given moment in history." Impeachable "misdemeanors" could include Inaction, chronic Ineptitude and abuse of powers, especially when aggregated into a pattern of behaviour. All this makes impeachment a fundamentally political act - defined in terms dictated by partisan actors - and thus, where those actors are sufficiently hostile, a more plausible outcome.Partisanship and political calculation, then, are all-important - not formal legal standards. For example, both Johnson's and Clinton's impeachment votes split along party lines. Democratic Senator Robert Byrd even stated at Clinton's trial that although he was certain the Democratic president had committed perjury, his vote would be cast "In the best interest of the nation."Impeachment efforts have always occurred when rival tribes control the White House and Capitol Hill [site of the U.S. Congress]. And the Republican Trump will not be impeached unless most members of a Republican-dominated House of Representatives and a supermajority of a Republican-dominated Senate judge it to be in their own best interests.Adapted from Prospect, March 2017.31According to the information in the article,A though Donald Trump has been accused of many kinds of objectionable and even scandalous behavior, he probably is not in danger of being impeached.B the political enemies of Donald Trump are currently planning to use his scandalous personal behavior and his criminal business deals with the Russians as the basis for impeachment proceedings.C despite exhibiting objectionable and even criminal behavior before the U.S. presidential election, Donald Trump can be impeached only for crimes he may have committed while serving as president.D the clearly vindictive, political motives of Donald Trump's opponents will invalidate any attempt to impeach him.E no matter what crimes that he may commit, as long as Donald Trump is able to maintain his high approval ratings, he will never be impeached.

Answer 1

O texto afirma que, apesar dos escândalos, sem precedente para outros presidentes americanos (o escândalo sexual de Clinton, por exemplo, chocou a nação e levaram ao impeachment, enquanto que os casos talvez mais escandalosos de Trump, aparentemente, não o farão), o presidente possui a maioria do Congresso e do Senado, além de possuir apoio de parte da sociedade, de modo que as pressões destes escândalos não serão suficientes para derrubá-lo.

O texto não afirma que os seus inimigos políticos pretendem pedir o seu impeachment por conta dos seus atos escandalosos e nem que o presidente só pode sofrer impeachment por crimes praticados durante o mandato. Do mesmo modo um impeachment não é menos válido por ser politicamente motivado e nem uma alta aprovação é capaz de impedi-lo.

É correta a alternativa A.