Something very fishy was happening between the Trump campaign and the Russians. The exact specific nature of this activity still seems...obscured. The likelihood of collusion or some other kind wrongdoing seems high. I think the impeachment was the right thing to do.
Minor point... Trump was impeached for attempting to bribe/blackmail Ukraine into interfering with the 2020 election (by announcing an investigation into Biden's family). None of the articles of impeachment had anything to do with Russian interference (and conspiracy) in the 2016 election.
I'm saying we just still don't have evidence.
Ummm... yes we do.
As I pointed out before, we have Manafort (You know, the guy who was Trump's campaign manager for a time) giving polling information to a Russian contact. We have Trump (You know, the guy who is actually the "Trump" in "Trump campaign" in discussion with Roger Stone over wikileaks (which got its information from Russian hackers). Sounds to me like there is some evidence there.
And that's just what I pointed out earlier that was part of the senate report. You also have:
- The Trump tower meeting with Russian actors (along with attempts to cover up the meeting)
- Attempts to arrange meetings between Trump and Putin
- Trump publically calling for Russia to "hack" Clinton's emails (and before anyone suggests that it was just some sort of joke/campaign stunt, Trump also followed up with Flynn about that in private)
- Trump's post-election activities with respect to Russia
So yes, there is plenty of evidence regarding the Trump campaign working with Russian actors. And that's just what's known publically. Who knows what is in the redacted portions of the Mueller report, or what might be uncovered with more investigation. But there is enough to definitely conclude that yes, Russia interfered, yes, the Trump campaign was aware of the interference, acted at least partly with the russians, and was receptive to other types of assistance.
It should also be pointed out that neither Mueller nor the senate investigation were actually looking for "collusion"... in part because that is not a precise legal term. Plus, Mueller was constrained by DoJ rules that suggested a sitting president cannot be indicted (as well as the looming threat of having his investigation cut short).
We have all the evidence to describe a criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russians, without anyone in charge actually using that term. Its a little like saying "We don't have any evidence a bank was robbed.... we just know some people walked into a bank, pulled out a gun, and got the bank teller to give them money".
There's no smoking gun, hence he was not removed from office. Maybe one day we'll find out.
Trump was not removed from office because (as another poster indicated) the republicans were in control of congress, and they lack integrity.