Last Tuesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the House’s formal impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump. 

Students on Wichita State’s campus have had mixed reactions to the news. 

Both College Democrats and College Republicans have released statements to The Sunflower about the announcement.

“We stand with Speaker Pelosi’s decision to begin this inquiry,” Kathlynn Short with the College Democrats said in a written statement. “The president has put our country through turmoil with hateful rhetoric and improper dealings with foreign countries, Ukraine only being the most recent. Donald Trump has time and time again weakened our democracy, its institutions, and our relations with allies around the globe. We fear his latest actions will only further weaken and divide our country.”

College Republicans held the opposite view.

“Democrats made up their minds far before the transcript or any real evidence was released,” wrote Brayden Hosamn, chair of the College Republicans. “They’ve been obsessed with impeaching President Trump from the moment he was elected. This is just more partisan politics instead of working to solve issues the American people sent them to Washington to do.”

The inquiry comes after recent reports that Trump requested Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky investigate 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, for Hunter’s business dealings in Ukraine. The phone calls in question took place as US aid to the Ukraine was being withheld. 

In addition, the president of Wichita State’s Turning Point USA chapter gave a statement to The Sunflower. Turning Point USA is a conservative student group.

“As conservatives we all knew this was coming all of the sham investigations were leading to something,” junior political science major Tyler Coats wrote in a Facebook message. “I see this as a good thing for the President. The House will pass this on a party line majority and the Trump base will be rallied like never before and the Republican Senate will not vote to convict a sitting Republican President. I feel this will backfire and push more voters to the Trump campaign. These people feel left behind by a government who only seem to be focused on getting rid of Trump and not working to better the country.” 

Students who are in support of impeaching Trump are also grappling with the fact that, if Trump resigns, Vice President Mike Pence would be next in line for the presidency. 

“Pence is just as horrifying, if not more so [than Trump],” junior theatre major Erin Mittman said. “Unlike Trump, Pence actually has some knowledge of and regard for the legal system, which means that he could pose a real legislative threat to the individual liberties of people already feeling threatened under the Trump administration.”