The Other Impeachment We Should Care About

Wednesday begins public impeachment hearings into the ongoing investigation of President Trump. But one day earlier, another Trump-related impeachment proceeding commenced: The University of Florida’s student government moved to impeach their student body president after he spent $50,000 to invite Donald Trump Jr and Kimberly Guilfoyle to campus.

The Washington Post reports that the student body president, Michael Murphy, was accused of “malfeasance and abuse of power.” Mandatory student fees were used to fund Don Jr and Guilfoyle’s October visit, violating a rule banning the use of public student funds for political party purposes.

In the impeachment resolution, Murphy was accused of “colluding” with the Trump campaign and endangering University of Florida students (emphasis ours):

In the Fall Session of 2019, in his position of trust as President of the Student Body, as reflected by emails obtained by The Independent Florida Alligator, Mr. Murphy colluded with Trump Victory National Financial Consultant Caroline Wren to expend $50,000 of mandatory student fees to further enrich Donald Trump, Jr., and Kimberly Guilfoyle through the ACCENT Speakers Bureau. By using student fees to advance his own expressed political beliefs at the expense of the inclusionary mission of ACCENT Speakers Bureau and Student Government writ large, Mr. Murphy not only endangered students marginalized by the speakers’ white nationalist supporters, but also abused his power to advance a particular political party at the expense of the students he should represent.

Murphy—the son of a Republican lobbyist and Trump donor—maintains that Don Jr and Guilfoyle’s speech wasn’t a campaign event. So did the head of the ACCENT Speakers Bureau, who told the Washington Post in October that the heavily protested event was merely a speaking engagement.

But any speaking engagement with Donald Trump Jr and Kimberly Guilfoyle during election season is an inherently political affair meant to push President Trump’s agenda. And that’s exactly what they did during the October event. Guilfoyle’s Instagram post about it even used the hashtag “#KAG2020″ (Keeping America Great 2020):