After the University of Florida's student body president helped bring Donald Trump Jr. and Trump campaign adviser Kimberly Guilfoyle to campus last month to the tune of $50,000, the school's student government has now moved to impeach him, arguing that the speaking engagement amounted to a misuse of student fees.
On Tuesday, the student body president, Michael Murphy, was served with the impeachment resolution and accused of malfeasance and abuse of power — a development unfolding at the university just as President Trump's public impeachment hearings begin today on Capitol Hill.
For Trump, the key piece of evidence is his July phone call with the Ukrainian president — but for Murphy, it's an email, a short exchange with a Trump campaign consultant that his critics say is proof of misconduct.
The group of senators seeking Murphy's impeachment argue that the Oct. 10 speaking engagement for Trump Jr. and Guilfoyle, his girlfriend, was funded with mandatory student fees in violation of rules banning the use of public students funds to support or oppose a "political party at any level." In the eyes of critics, Murphy's correspondence with the Trump fundraising consultant ahead of the event bolsters their case that Trump Jr. and Guilfoyle's appearance was a campaign event.
"By using student fees to advance his own expressed political beliefs at the expense of the … 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," the impeachment resolution states.
Murphy could not be reached for comment late Tuesday, but he has previously maintained in comments to the student newspaper, the Independent Florida Alligator, that the couple's speech was not a campaign event and therefore didn't violate any rules
In recent weeks, the couple has traveled around the country for numerous speaking engagements, a mixture of campaign events such as a "Keep America Great" panel in San Antonio, and promotional events such as for Trump Jr'. s new book, "Triggered: How the Left Thrives on Hate and Wants to Silence Us." Speaking about the book at the University of California at Los Angeles on Sunday, far-right agitators heckled Trump Jr.
But in Florida, the couple taunted the liberal protesters, with Guilfoyle telling them at one point, "I bet your parents are so proud of you," to cheers from the pro-Trump crowd.
At one point, Guilfoyle said Trump was doing "so much for our country," adding, "He has the balls to stand up for what's right," unlike other politicians who fall victim to a "little mini DustBuster, like, testicular vacuum," the Times reported. Trump Jr. said of his father's efforts to improve the economy: "There is not a single economic metric where we are not better off today than you were three years ago," the Times reported.
According to the student government constitution, a group of senators tasked with weighing impeachment must vote for Murphy's ouster by two-thirds majority. If that occurs, he will be temporarily suspended as the case moves to a senate trial body, which must vote by three-fourths majority to convict and remove him from office.
Some conservative students voiced skepticism about the impeachment effort and defended Murphy's actions. When the student senate broached the possibility of impeachment during a hearing last week, one student, Jared Rossi, said the impeachment was based on partisanship and that senators were misleadingly "stuffing Ms. Wren's words into Michael Murphy's mouth," the Alligator reported.
Jarrod Rodriguez, treasurer of UF's College Republicans group, told the Times that he did not believe the emails between Wren and Murphy provided evidence of an impeachable offense.
"I'm not saying that it doesn't raise any eyebrows," he said, "but it also isn't the nail in the coffin."
What he did was inappropriate but not impeachable. These guys are defending their boy at a Congressional level.
