President Trump became the 3rd US president to be impeached in the presidential history of the United States. The U.S. House of Representatives impeached the U. S. President Donald Trump on charges of abuse of power and obstructing Congress, the culmination of an effort by Democrats that further inflamed partisan tensions in Washington and deepened the nation’s ideological divide.
The historic votes on Wednesday evening, which won the support of almost all Democrats in the House chamber but not a single Republican, leave Trump as only the third president in U.S. history to be impeached — and the only impeached president likely to win his party’s nomination for re-election.
A trial is most likely to be held in the early next year to decide whether the president should be convicted on the charges and removed from office, though the Republicans who have the majority in that senate chamber will almost certainly acquit him.
For documenting Trump’s efforts to pressure the president of Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, House Democrats took depositions from more than a dozen witnesses, held weeks of hearings, and wrote hundreds of pages.
By a 230 to 197 vote in the Democratic-majority House of Congress Representatives, the 45th US president becomes just the third occupant of the White House in American history to be impeached.
Yet public support for Trump’s impeachment and removal rarely went much above 50% in polling, and there is slight evidence that the proceedings left him in a worse position politically on the eve of the 2020 election.
“What is at risk here is the very idea of America, “said Adam Schiff, the lawmaker, who headed the impeachment inquiry, ahead of the vote.”
Despite testimony from 17 officials that Trump leveraged his office for domestic political gain, the president maintained his innocence throughout the impeachment inquiry — furiously denouncing it as a “witch hunt,” an “attempted coup” and on Wednesday as an “assault on America.”
In an extraordinary moment, while the House was casting votes to impeach him, thousands of Trump’s most fervent supporters were cheering him at a rally in Michigan where he railed against a “radical left” he said was “consumed with hatred.”
You can also read trump’s letter sent to Nancy Pelosi here https://globalmessenger.net/blog/2019/12/19/trump-expresses-his-anger-over-impeachment-in-a-fuming-letter-to-nancy-pelosi/
Democrats are “trying to nullify the ballots of tens of millions of patriotic Americans,” he charged. “Four more years, four more years,” the crowd chanted back.
Neither of the two previous presidents impeached since 1789, Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998, was convicted in the Senate, and both held onto their jobs.
But despite the high likelihood of Trump being cleared by Senate Republicans, Democrats said the evidence against him was overwhelming and forced them to act.
“It is tragic that the president’s reckless actions make impeachment necessary. He gave us no choice,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi a Democrat from California. “It is a matter of fact that the president is an ongoing threat to our national security and the integrity of our elections.”
Republicans repeatedly drove the line that the Democrats rushed the investigation; Trump was treated more unfairly than witches put on trial in the 17th century Americas — or even than Jesus Christ, they claimed.
“Pontius Pilate gave Jesus the opportunity to face his accusers. During that sham trial, Pontius Pilate afforded more rights to Jesus than the Democrats afforded this president and this process,” said Georgia Republican Barry Loudermilk.
They accused Democrats of being driven by a party fringe of socialist extremists and “Trump-haters,” and warned that impeaching Trump would backlash against the party in national elections next November.
“This is not about the Ukraine, it’s about power,” said Republican Matt Gaetz. “Voters will never forget that Democrats have been triggered into impeaching the president, because they don’t like him, and they don’t like us.”
Democrats countered that Republicans were not addressing the charges and evidence, instead issuing blanket denials and counter-accusations. “We do not hear, because we cannot hear, because they cannot articulate, a real defence of the president’s actions,” said Jerry Nadler, whose Judiciary Committee drafted the charges against Trump.
In an unlikely event that the Senate convicts and remove Trump from the office, Vice President Mike Pence would be conferred upon with the presidential duties and complete Trump’s term, which ends on January 20, 2021.
