President Donald Trump is impeached by the House of Representatives
Congress votes to make '45' the third president in history to officially be charged with misconduct
President Donald Trump was impeached yesterday by the House of Representatives for abusing his power and obstructing Congress.
President Donald Trump was impeached yesterday by the House of Representatives for abusing his power and obstructing Congress.
Becoming only the third president in history to be impeached, Trump was charged with high crimes and misdemeanors for attempting to get the Ukraine president to investigate his Democratic political rivals. No House Republicans supported either of the two articles of impeachment and nearly all House Democrats supported the measures, with just a few opting to vote with Republicans, according to CNN.
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The impeachment vote caps off three months of investigation after a whistleblower alleged the president had pressured Ukraine to investigate Democrats and threatened to withhold U.S. security assistance if they did not.
House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, of California, who spearheaded Trump’s impeachment investigation, said yesterday that Trump “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, according to CNN. “Instead, he got caught. He tried to cheat, and he got caught.”
The House voted 230-197 in favor of finding Trump abused his power and voted 229-198 in favor of charging him with obstruction of Congress. In the votes, Democrat Reps. Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey and Collin Peterson of Minnesota voted with Republicans. Rep. Jared Golden of Maine only voted for one impeachment article. Also, Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan, a Republican who switched to independent, voted to impeach Trump on both counts.
Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, voted present for both articles.
Only three presidents, including Trump, have ever been impeached in the United States. President Andrew Johnson was impeached in 1868 and President Bill Clinton was impeached in 1998. President Richard Nixon resigned in 1974 before the House could impeach him. Johnson and Clinton were both acquitted by the Senate, which is anticipated in the case against Trump.
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Now the impeachment process is expected to move to the Republican-controlled Senate in January. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told Republican senators on Tuesday that he would be announcing a date for the impeachment trial to start by week’s end, according to CNN.
