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Christian Lammert on inforadio - USA: Impeachment is party political

News from Jan 21, 2020

Tue 21.01.2020 | 09:05 | Interviews


USA: Impeachment is party political

The US Senate will meet again on Tuesday because of the impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump. The substantive part is to begin with that. Political scientist Christian Lammert says that the impeachment leaves a divided society.
 

Christian Lammert, a political scientist at the John F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies at the Free University of Berlin, sees a current problem in the impeachment proceedings against the US president. The procedure is institutionally conceived "that the legislature can control the executive branch." This procedure is, however, interwoven with party politics.

"The Democrats are the only Democrats in favor of impeachment and the Republicans are not." So the process seems futile. "And it's a farce what it's actually presented at this time."

 Influence on U.S. Campaign...

According to current polls, 58 of the Americans are in favour of the procedure. "That means they want to know what happened." They say the issue is being discussed in public. The trial could have repercussions for Trump ahead of the US presidential election in November. "If a lot of dirt is thrown around, a little bit of it will stick to him," the political scientist said.

On the other hand, Bill Clinton has emerged stronger after an unsuccessful impeachment trial in the 1990s.

 

"Play without consequences"

Lammert reckons with "a spectacle that is pushed through and will have no consequences whatsoever." However, the trial leaves behind a divided society and political elite "where Democrats and Republicans are unable to work together."

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