President Donald Trump was impeached by the US House of Representatives Wednesday night, becoming only the third American chief executive to be formally charged under the constitution’s ultimate remedy for high crimes and misdemeanors.
The historic vote split along party lines, much the way it has divided the US, over the charges that the 45th president abused the power of his office by enlisting a foreign government to investigate a political rival ahead of the 2020 election. The House was also voting on a charge that he then obstructed Congress in its investigation.
The articles of impeachment, the political equivalent of an indictment, now go to the Senate for trial. If Trump is acquitted by the Republican-led chamber, as expected, he would have to run for reelection carrying the enduring mark of impeachment on his presidency.Democrats led Wednesday night’s voting, framed in what many said was their duty to protect the constitution and uphold the nation’s system of checks and balances. Republicans stood by their party’s leader, who has frequently tested the bounds of civic norms. Trump called the whole affair a “witch hunt,” a “hoax” and a “sham,” and sometimes all three.
Senate trial expected to begin in January
The trial is expected to begin in January in the Senate, where a vote of two-thirds is necessary for conviction. While Democrats had the majority in the House to impeach Trump, Republicans control the Senate and few if any are expected to diverge from plans to acquit the president ahead of early state election-year primary voting.
Pelosi, once reluctant to lead Democrats into a partisan impeachment, now risks her majority and speakership to hold the president accountable.
“Today we are here to defend democracy for the people,” Pelosi said opening debate.
Trump, who began Wednesday tweeting his anger at the proceedings, scheduled an evening rally in Battle Creek, Michigan.
As the House debated the articles of impeachment throughout the day, Trump registered his anger with the process on Twitter, in all capital letters: “SUCH ATROCIOUS LIES BY THE RADICAL LEFT, DO NOTHING DEMOCRATS. THIS IS AN ASSAULT ON AMERICA, AND AN ASSAULT ON THE REPUBLICAN PARTY!!!!” he wrote.
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US Democrats signaled on Monday they were girding for battle over witnesses and fair process in the Senate trial of Donald Trump, days ahead of a historic House vote on impeaching the president for abuse of office and obstruction of Congress.
Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said he was aiming for proceedings to start January 6 that would mete out “swift but fair justice” to Trump, even as Republican loyalists acknowledged they were less interested in being impartial jurors than protecting the president.
Lawmakers were beginning a consequential week. House Judiciary Committee chairman Jerry Nadler released a 658-page report on Monday outlining the case for impeaching Trump and detailing his alleged wrongdoing, including pressuring Ukraine to investigate Democrats.
It alleged severe episodes of “criminal” conduct by the president including bribery — rebutting the Republican argument that Democrats have identified no specific criminal wrongdoing by Trump.
“President Trump’s abuse of power encompassed both the constitutional offense of ‘bribery’ and multiple federal crimes,” it said, adding Trump’s conduct was “unlike anything this nation has ever seen.” The House Rules Committee was set to meet on Tuesday to lay down guidelines for a floor debate on impeachment.
When the Democratic-controlled House convenes on Wednesday to weigh the two charges approved by the Judiciary Committee, Trump is expected to become only the third US president to be impeached, after Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998.
Richard Nixon resigned in 1974 just before a House impeachment vote. Neither Johnson nor Clinton was convicted in the Senate.
Trump is also unlikely to be removed from office by the Senate, where Republicans hold a 53-47 majority.
But Schumer has pressed hard for a fair process, writing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to demand four key witnesses testify, including acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and Trump’s ex-national security adviser John Bolton.
Schumer also sought to set limits on testimony length and questioning of witnesses, proposing a structure that would give Americans what he called “confidence in the process.” “Just the facts. We don’t need fishing expeditions,” Schumer told CNN.
“We’re trying to have the kind of justice America is known for, which is swift but fair justice.” Senate rules on impeachment are determined by a simple majority vote in the chamber. Although Schumer is looking to strike a deal with McConnell on the rules, it will be the will of the majority that wins out.
Democrats have bridled at McConnell’s recent promise of “total coordination” with the White House, as well as Senator Lindsey Graham’s apparent dismissal of the need to be an impartial juror in the process.
“I’m not trying to pretend to be a fair juror here,” the Trump loyalist said on Sunday, rejecting the charges against Trump as “partisan nonsense.” One of the two impeachment articles to go before the House charges Trump with abuse of power for conditioning military aid and a White House meeting on Ukraine’s announcing investigations into Democrats ahead of the 2020 presidential election.
The other charges him with obstructing Congress for refusing to cooperate with the inquiry and ordering other officials not to appear, a development Democrats say is unprecedented in American history.
The president has repeatedly assailed the process and the Democrats conducting it. “The Impeachment Hoax is the greatest con job in the history of American politics!” he boomed Monday on Twitter.
