House should impeach president

Thank you to the House Judiciary Committee for voting to impeach President Trump. When the full House of Representatives votes I strongly encourage Congressman Jason Smith to vote in favor of impeachment. Considering the massive evidence against the President and favoring the impeachment articles -- abuse of power and obstruction of Congress -- one would think unanimous approval is a certainty.

The President's supporters do not see things this way. Perhaps they do not see the abuse of power, because he is trying to do things they want. Perhaps they do not see the obstruction of Congress, because Congress is exercising its Constitutional power to stop him. I respectfully disagree with these notions, because this is how our government is designed to work -- nobody gets everything they want. We elect a chief administrator who is required to share power with Congress and the Judiciary.

After all, President Trump won in 2016 on a technicality. He legitimately won the Electoral College and the Democrats handed over power. Remember, he lost the popular vote by a massive 2.9 million-vote landslide. Furthermore, in 2018, his leadership style resulted in a massive loss of Republican seats in the House. Perhaps rather than defending Trump's atrocious behavior we should imagine how successful his presidency could have been if he had recognized his two-time failure to obtain a popular mandate and instead worked with Congress to solve problems rather than pursuing his authoritarian, scorched-earth style approach to governing.

ANDY LEIGHTON, Cape Girardeau