For almost three years President Donald Trump has committed one impeachable offense after another. From the things that have already been proven such as his quid pro quo with Ukraine and his attempt to obstruct justice by firing Special Counsel Robert Mueller, to the accusations of sexual assault from people such as Summer Zervos and conspiring with the Russian government, the time for impeachment is now.

While there are a number of impeachable offenses Trump has committed, such as firing the active FBI director James Comey to stop an investigation into his campaign and coercing witnesses such as Michael Cohen to not testify, Trump’s most blatant offense is using the powers of the presidency to pressure a foreign government to find dirt on his political rivals.

Recently, in a call with the president of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump threatened to take away military aid from Ukraine unless they investigated Joe Biden. According to the official White House transcript, Trump told Zelensky that if he wanted more military aid he “would like [him] to do us a favor.” In addition, according to Vox, Trump and his personal attorney Rudy Guiliani had previously told Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden and the democratic party to get an edge up in 2020. 

Now many of you may be asking why this matters. Who cares if Trump tried to get dirt on Biden? It matters because it erodes the principles of democracy the US was built on. Trump’s actions send signals to the rest of the world that they can interfere in our elections. 

For an offense to be impeachable it needs to be treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. If bribing a foreign government and committing a treasonous act of election interference is not an impeachable offense then I don’t know what is.

This simply can not stand. Now is the time to impeach and remove Trump from office. Even if he only has a year left as president, impeachment is important to show the world that the office of the president is a position held by someone who will do what is best for the country, not what is best for himself.