House of Representatives impeaches President Donald Trump
(CNN)The
deeply divided House of Representatives took the historic step to
impeach President Donald Trump on Wednesday, charging a president with
high crimes and misdemeanors for just the third time in American
history.
The House voted almost entirely along party lines for two articles of impeachment to
remove the President from office — abuse of power and obstruction of
Congress — sending the case to the Senate for a trial expected to start
next month.
The
impeachment votes marked the culmination of a sprawling and rapidly
moving three-month Democratic investigation into allegations that the
President pressured Ukraine to investigate his political rivals while withholding US security assistance and a White House meeting.
The
House voted 230-197 to charge Trump with abuse of power and 229-198 to
charge him with obstruction of Congress. The votes were largely split
along party lines: just two Democrats voted against both articles, Reps.
Collin Peterson of Minnesota and Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey, who is
expected to soon switch parties. A third, Rep. Jared Golden of Maine,
voted for one impeachment article. Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of
Hawaii, who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination, voted
present for both articles.
Republican-turned independent Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan voted to impeach Trump on both counts.
Trump's impeachment, which occurred 85 days after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the opening of the impeachment inquiry,
will have long-lasting ramifications across Washington and beyond. It
will undoubtedly shape the legacies of the key players in the midst of
it, from Pelosi and her committee chairs who led the impeachment
proceedings to Trump and his staunchest defenders in Congress.
It's
a scenario that appeared unlikely just months ago for Pelosi, who had
resisted the push for Trump's impeachment from liberal advocates both
inside her caucus and outside Capitol Hill. But then an anonymous
whistleblower complaint changed the course of history for both Trump and
his chief antagonist at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue.
"We
gather today under the dome of this temple of democracy to exercise one
of the most solemn powers that this body can take: The impeachment of
the President of the United States," Pelosi said Wednesday to kick off
the impeachment debate on the House floor. "If we do not act now we
would be derelict in our duty. It is tragic that the President's
reckless actions make impeachment necessary. He gave us no choice."
Trump
now joins a small club of Presidents who have been impeached by the
House for "high crimes and misdemeanors" cited in the Constitution:
President Andrew Johnson in 1868 and President Bill Clinton in 1998.
President Richard Nixon resigned in 1974 before impeachment proceedings
against him could reach the House floor.
Both
Johnson and Clinton were acquitted by the Senate, and there's
effectively zero chance the Republican-controlled Senate will remove
Trump from office. But unlike Johnson and Clinton, who were impeached
during their second terms, Trump will face reelection less than a year
after his impeachment, giving voters the opportunity to have the final
word in November 2020.
Trump
has insisted he did nothing wrong in his "perfect" July call with
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which formed the basis of the
whistleblower complaint. Trump tweeted repeatedly about the impeachment
proceedings against him on Wednesday as the House debate unfolded.
"THIS IS AN ASSAULT ON AMERICA, AND AN ASSAULT ON THE REPUBLICAN PARTY!!!!" he said.
Democrats
say that Trump was impeached because he abused his office by directing a
pressure campaign for Ukraine to announce an investigation into former
Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, conditioning $400
million in US security aid and a one-on-one White House meeting on the
investigation. Then Trump covered up his misconduct, Democrats say,
obstructing Congress by stonewalling all the subpoenas from Congress
trying to investigate his conduct.
"His
conduct continues to undermine our Constitution and threaten our next
election," said House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, a New York
Democrat. "His actions warrant his impeachment and demand his removal
from office."
House Intelligence
Chairman Adam Schiff, a California Democrat who led the impeachment
investigation, said that the President "was willing to sacrifice our
national security by withholding support for a critical strategic
partner at war in order to improve his reelection prospects."
"But
for the courage of someone willing to blow the whistle, he would have
gotten away with it," Schiff said. "Instead, he got caught. He tried to
cheat, and he got caught."
But
congressional Republicans condemned Democrats for rushing to impeach the
President, charging that Democrats pushed forward with a partisan
impeachment intended to beat Trump at the ballot box in 2020.
"The
people of America see through this. The people of America understand
due process, and they understand when it is being trampled in the
people's House," said Rep. Doug Collins of Georgia, the top Republican
on the Judiciary Committee.
"What
we've found here today is a president who did not do as being charged,"
Collins added. "The call itself, the two parties say no pressure.
Nothing was ever done to get the money. In fact, they didn't even know
the money was held."
The intense
partisan debate over impeachment played out for hours on the House floor
Wednesday on rapid-fire fashion ahead of the impeachment votes. In
one-to-two minute speeches, Democrats and Republicans traded passionate
arguments for why they were voting for or against impeachment. Back and
forth they went: Democrats explaining the duty to impeach, followed by
Republicans declaring that impeachment was a massive mistake.
Lawmakers
on both sides referenced back to the Founding Fathers, to the history
being made with Wednesday's votes and to the ramifications they were
leaving for their children and grandchildren.
The
floor fight is the same war that the two parties have waged for the
past three months in the closed-door depositions and committee hearings
after Pelosi opened an impeachment inquiry on September 24.
The
investigation included testimony from 17 officials, 12 of whom appeared
in public hearings. They described a months-long campaign led by the
President's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani to oust former US Ambassador
to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, followed by a push for Ukraine to
announce the investigations that would benefit the President
politically.
Several key officials,
including acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and former
national security adviser John Bolton, refused to testify. Democrats,
however, chalked up the defiance of subpoenas to evidence of
congressional obstruction rather than fighting in court to force
witnesses to appear — a move that could have prolonged the impeachment
inquiry for weeks if not months.
Leading
up to Wednesday's vote, no Republicans signaled they were considering
voting to impeach the President. The looming question was whether
moderate Democrats — the 31 who represented congressional districts
Trump won in 2016 — would support impeachment.
One
by one, almost every one of the 31 Democrats said they were compelled
to vote for impeachment. Only Peterson, a veteran lawmaker from a deeply
red rural Minnesota district, and Van Drew, who signaled he would soon
switch parties, said they were opposed to impeachment altogether. Golden
split the difference, voting for abuse of power and against obstruction
of Congress.
Wednesday's vote
shifts the impeachment proceedings to the Senate, where a trial is
expected in January. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told
Republican senators at a policy lunch Tuesday that he will announce by
the end of the week the date for the start of the Senate trial,
according to sources.
For
House Democrats, the next step to prepare for the trial is to name
impeachment managers who will prosecute the case in the Senate.
Wednesday's vote also paved the way for the House to approve a
resolution announcing the managers.
This story has been updated with additional developments Wednesda
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