Donald Trump, the 45th president of the United States, on Wednesday night, became only the third in history to be impeached.
After long hours of angry squabbling and repetitive debate, the House of Representatives voted as expected on Wednesday on the two articles of impeachment.
The votes were largely on party lines: 230 to 197 on Article I, accusing Trump of abuse of power; and 229 to 198 on Article II, accusing him of obstruction of Congress. Three Democrats voted no on one or both of the articles; one voted “present” on both articles. All Republicans voted no.
That will lead to a January trial in the Republican-led Senate, where a two-thirds vote would be required to remove the president from office. No president has ever been convicted and thrown out of office.
“The epic debate on the House floor reflected the deep polarization gripping American politics in the Trump era,” said the New York Times.
At the heart of the articles of impeachment were the president’s attempts to pressure Ukraine to investigate his 2020 political rivals, and his refusal to cooperate in any way with the House, including ordering current and former White House officials not to comply with subpoenas for testimony.
Consuming the agreed-upon six hours of debate with declarations and arguments as short as 30 seconds and rarely longer than 3 minutes, the lawmakers called each other names; referred constantly to the Constitution while taking opposing positions on its directives; drew sometimes bizarre historical parallels and spoke frequently of Alexander Hamilton, the other Founding Fathers — and even the “founding mothers”:
“To paraphrase one of our founding mothers, Abigail Adams, a people may let a president fall, yet still remain a people,” said Rep. Katherine Clark (D-MA). “But if a president lets his people slip from him, he is no longer a president. Just as Abigail Adams mourned, Donald Trump has let the people slip from him.”
Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA) compared Trump to Jesus: “When Jesus was falsely accused of treason, [the Roman governor] Pontius Pilate gave Jesus the opportunity to face his accusers during that sham trial. Pontius Pilate afforded more rights to Jesus than the Democrats have afforded this president in this process.”
Opening the debate, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) recited the Pledge of Allegiance, then said: “It is tragic that the president’s reckless actions make impeachment necessary. He gave us no choice.” Democrats gave her a standing ovation.
Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-WI) declared that Trump “is keeping his campaign promises and you [Democrats] hate him for that.”
Trump, in what theTimes called “an irate and rambling six-page letter” sent to Pelosi on Tuesday, denouncing the impeachment drive as “an illegal, partisan, attempted coup.”
And predictably, as the ferocious debate dragged on, the president posted his outrage in all caps on Twitter: “SUCH ATROCIOUS LIES BY THE RADICAL LEFT, DO NOTHING DEMOCRATS. THIS IS AN ASSAULT ON AMERICA, AND AN ASSAULT ON THE REPUBLICAN PARTY!!!!”
But in the early going on Wednesday, Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA), chairman of the Rules Committee, said: “If a president undermining our national security and using the federal government for his own selfish personal gain is not impeachable conduct … I don’t know what is.”
