On Dec. 15, the House Judiciary Committee approved two articles of impeachment toward President Trump and the vote will now move to the entire House of Representatives.

Although it’s unlikely that Trump will be removed from office, each day it appears more and more likely that the House will vote to impeach him.

The issue of impeachment came up due to a phone call made between Trump and Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy where Trump said he would withhold military aid unless Ukraine provided information about the son of presidential candidate Joe Biden, who had previously worked there. To some, it may seem that the Democrats are trying to create a scandal right before the next election in order to ensure that Trump loses. However, this is not the case, as abuse of power offenses should be taken seriously.

Impeachable offenses are “high crimes and misdemeanors” such as treason, bribery or anything that is deemed as an “abuse of power.” The phone call is an impeachable offense because Trump had urged the Ukrainian President to look into Hunter Biden. Trump even suspended $400 million in military aid pending Ukraine’s promise to investigate. This is a clear example of soliciting foreign influence in an election, an action that undermines the democratic process.

This is the reason that Pelosi decided to move ahead with the articles of impeachment. Trump can continue to claim that the phone call was “harmless” but the evidence against him was enough to convince the House Judiciary Committee to vote in favor of two articles of impeachment. Now, the proceedings head to the full House of Representatives for a vote where it is likely to pass due to the Democratic majority.

Sadly, the public and the press are largely divided along partisan lines and many people in the country, although concerned, don’t know whom to believe. Time will tell whether the president is negatively affected by this whole debacle. We can only hope that at the very least, reforms will be made so that future leaders cannot engage in similar conduct.