Donald Trump impeached by House of Representatives in historic vote

Just shy of the third anniversary of his presidency, Donald Trump was impeached in a mostly party-line vote in the House of Representatives on Wednesday evening.

Trump became the third president to be impeached in US history.

After a full day of debate, the House voted 230-197 to approve a first article of impeachment charging Trump with abuse of power, with one “present” vote. A second article, charging Trump with obstruction of Congress, was approved 229-198.

Trump now faces a trial in the Republican-controlled Senate, expected to begin early next month and to produce an acquittal of the president.

As the vote unfolded, Trump spoke at a campaign rally in Battle Creek, Michigan. “It doesn’t really feel like we’re being impeached,” he said, to cheers. “This lawless partisan impeachment is a political suicide march for the Democrat party.”

But Trump’s fierce efforts to seal himself in a bubble of adulation, and his insistence that Republicans pretend away the existence of facts threatening to pierce that bubble, could not divert the historic reality coalescing on Capitol Hill. 

Following the vote, the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, said it was a “sad day” for the country. “The president’s reckless activities necessitated us having to introduce articles of impeachment,” she said, before thanking the various House committee leaders who spearheaded the impeachment inquiry.

Responding to questions about when the House would send over the articles of impeachment to the Senate, Pelosi would not definitively commit to sending over the articles or naming impeachment managers, House members who would present the case against Trump to the Senate.

“We cannot name managers until we see what the process is on the Senate side,” she said. “So far we haven’t seen anything that looks fair to us.”

Democrats on Wednesday questioned remarks from the Republican leader of the Senate, Mitch McConnell, who said on Tuesday he was “not impartial about this at all”.

 Nancy Pelosi as the House votes in Washington DC, on 18 December. Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

Source: Theguardian.com