The House impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump is the only option, The New York Times says.
The newspaper made its comments in a Friday editorial.
“For nearly three years, public-spirited people have debated whether each instance of executive overreach by Mr. Trump and his lieutenants went far enough to require the traumatic recourse of an impeachment inquiry,” the newspaper said. “They have wondered at what point the checks and balances of American governance might have to be restored by means of the most radical check of all.
“That point has now been reached.
“The American people have learned over the past week that Mr. Trump, during a July phone call, pressed the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, to investigate Joe Biden, one of his leading political rivals, according to a written summary of the conversation released by the White House.”
The paper noted a president’s use of power for political gain, at the expense of the public interest “is the quintessence of an impeachable offense.” And it maintained there is no precedent for a president pressuring another country to bring down a political rival.
“Mr. Trump has disparaged and degraded the institutions of American governance, and it is now time for them, in historic rebuke, to demonstrate the majesty of representative democracy,” the Times said.
Times editorial page editor James Bennet, in a separate column explained the editorial board had, until this week, concluded that an impeachment inquiry was too extreme a measure.
“That changed over the past week with the revelation that Mr. Trump pressed the president of Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden,” he said.
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