Justin Elizalde/ Vaquero Radio
Jacqueline Peraza | EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
As President Donald Trump visited the Rio Grande Valley last Tuesday, Congress was considering the impeachment of Trump for the second time during his four-year term.
The next day, Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives, 232-197, and charged with “incitement of insurrection after a mob attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6 while Congress confirmed the electoral college presidential votes.
He is expected to be out of office by the time the impeachment trial begins as President- elect Joe Biden’s inauguration is set to take place Wednesday in Washington, D.C.
Anthony Knopp, an emeritus history professor at UTRGV, said the impeachment process is made up of two steps: the indictment by the House of Representatives and the approval to remove the sitting president from office by the Senate.
“I’m not at all convinced that he will be convicted and removed from office,” Knopp said. “Remember it’s a two-thirds vote that’s required, and I don’t know that the votes are there. If he continues, of course, he will have left office by the time any of this happens, [and] the Senate fails to convict him, then he will be free to participate in politics just like anybody else. …He could run for the presidency again.”
He said Trump’s impeachment would not directly have an impact on Biden’s presidency but more within the Republican Party.
“Will Trump continue to be the major factor in the Republican Party or not? Will he be able to run for office again? Those [questions] would remain to be determined,” Knopp said. “But as far as Biden would be concerned, from the Democrat’s point of view, they better hope Biden has a successful presidency if Trump is still around.”
He said he believes it is disturbing that the United States has reached the point of impeaching, and possibly convicting, a sitting president for the second time.
“No matter what one thinks about whether it’s a good thing to do it or a bad thing to do it, it’s very disturbing to have it happening in our country,” Knopp said.
Last Tuesday, dozens of supporters rallied at the La Plaza Mall parking lot, near the McAllen International Airport, awaiting the arrival of President Donald Trump. This was the president’s first public appearance since the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6.
President Trump touched down in the Marine One at the airport as supporters, of all ages, cheered and waved their flags from the sidewalk to the third level of the Dillard’s parking garage.
Trump proceeded to travel to Alamo, where he briefly spoke to the public about the addition of the border wall, the prospect of a second impeachment, the Capitol incident and the coronavirus vaccine.
“And we’re now delivering it to states, including your state, where your governor and government are doing a terrific job in getting it administered in Texas,” the president said during his visit, according to whitehouse.gov.
Trump went into detail about the successes of the addition of 450 miles of border wall along the Texas-Mexico border, which he said included a decrease in drug smuggling and people crossing into the U.S. illegally.
We’ve arrested nearly 500,000 illegal aliens with criminal records — some with very serious criminal records of the type you don’t want to know about, like murder,” he stated. “Through the landmark reforms we’ve put into place, we have ended the immigration chaos and reestablished American sovereignty.”
About the same time, protesters gathered outside La Unión Del Pueblo Entero headquarters in San Juan to denounce the president’s visit to the Rio Grande Valley. Former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julián Castro attended the protest.
“Trump started his campaign by demonizing immigrants, and he’s ending his presidency in a shameful way by continuing to demonize immigrants and telling lies about our immigration system,” Castro said in an exclusive interview with The Rider. “It’s a shame that he spent so much time and taxpayer money on a wall that is useless.”
Asked why he believed Trump had decided to visit the Rio Grande Valley, Castro replied that when the president finds himself in “political hot water,” he returns to highly politicized American issues.
“Every time Donald Trump gets into political hot water, or every time he sees his numbers slipping, he goes back to the red meat of demonizing immigrants [and] stirring up white nationalism by brown people, and that’s what he’s doing today,” he said.
The president’s visit prompted the counties judges of Hidalgo and Cameron to issue statements to the public. On Jan. 11, Hidalgo County Judge Richard F. Cortez urged supporters and opponents of Trump to stay peaceful among each other.
“The Rio Grande Valley has an unique opportunity to demonstrate to the world that peaceful public discourse is far more effective than public violence,” Cortez stated in the Jan. 11 news release.
In Cameron County, Judge Eddie Treviño Jr. asked that Trump cancel his visit entirely for the safety and well-being of the Valley in a Jan. 12 news release.
Asked if he had any comments he would like to share to UTRGV students, Castro replied, ” People will often tell you, as young people, that you’re the future, but you’re really the present. We need your leadership, your voice, your vision, right now.”
