Readers sound off on impeachment

Letters edited for clarity and grammar:

Damning evidence has been presented during the impeachment proceedings against President Donald J. Trump; however, some in the Senate do not seem compelled to do their job. They keep saying "let the voters decide." 

We did that, dear Senators, when we elected you to office. It's time for you to do your job according to the oath you swore at the beginning of this trial. And so far, you haven't done that. About 75% of Americans polled said they wanted to hear from former national security adviser John Bolton and other witnesses. Yet you voted against witnesses.

You also had a chance to see if Trump would provide you with the evidence he refused the Democrats or if he would obstruct you as well, but you blew it. Now, you have your chance to throw this bad apple under the bus because he would most certainly do that to you if you crossed him. Do the right thing. Vote to remove him from office. I mean, it's not like you don't have Vice President Mike Pence to take over.

Show Americans and the world that our form of government actually works and that nobody is above the law, not even the president. Because as it stands now, I want the House to start impeachment proceedings all over again, this time with stronger charges.

Bruce Burnaman; Woodstock, Ga. 

Sen. Lamar Alexander’s reason for voting against new witnesses in the Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump says it all: “If this shallow, hurried, and wholly partisan impeachment were ever to succeed, it would rip the country apart. ... Let the people decide.”

Dennis L. Breo; New Smyrna Beach, Fla.

It is with the heaviest of hearts and tears in my 69-year-old eyes that I sit here and write this letter. 

President Donald Trump must be removed from office. He is bad for America. He has made us the laughingstock of the world. He has set back the progress our nation has since our Founding Fathers signed the Constitution. We have survived a civil war and wars for equality. We have survived assassinations and assassination attempts. God willing, we will survive this.

Trump ended the Iran nuclear deal. That will go down in history as one of the worst moves of all time. Trump is in love with horrible world leaders including Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korea's Kim Jong Un. Trump is the president of right-wing America only. He has awakened the haters in our country.

Trump is bad for our children and grandchildren. By pulling out of the Paris climate agreement, he has put future generations in danger of no longer being able to breathe clean air and drink clean water. Trump wants to mess with Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and poor people's food.

If former President Barack Obama had done to a Republican candidate what Trump did to Joe Biden, I have no doubt that Republicans would have done exactly what Democrats did in the House — impeached.

Republican senators must put our nation before their party and remove Trump. Please, do it for the children. 

Alan J. Groveman; South Euclid, Ohio

The true beneficiary of the U.S. Senate's partisan joke of an impeachment trial is Great Britain. Their parliament can now assume the mantle of "the greatest deliberative body on Earth" while our Republican-led Senate has fallen in rank to that of the old Russian Politburo.

Past senators throughout history are rolling over in their graves.

David W. Williams; Media, Pa.

On Jan. 31, the Senate voted against allowing witness testimony in President Donald Trump's impeachment trial.

As the final vote was cast, I was reminded of a line from the song "American Pie" so prophetically stated by Don McLean: “Something touched me deep inside, the day the music died.” You see, on that day, democracy died. And the U.S. Senate was complicit in its demise.

McLean seemed to be talking, in 1971, about the perilous position we find ourselves in now. That Senate decision was a defining moment in the American experience, and something has been lost forever.

The foundation of the country began to crumble the day GOP senators decided to put party over country. They were a lynch mob just waiting to do away with a founding tenet of our once cherished democracy.

The music has died, but perhaps some day it will live again.

Jeffrey Paul; Albuquerque, N.M.

Partisan impeachment is now the new normal.

This is surely not the only time a president (or vice president) has withheld aid (or threatened to). Monies have also been appropriated by Congress that were redirected by the executive to other priorities (like money for the border wall). All these things happened without someone being impeached. You can do the math and realize that bringing us to this new normal was selfish folly.

Dwayne Keith; Valrico, Fla.

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