He has indicted, charged with crimes , which IS what an impeachment is….
While the process IS political….
The charges are based on the law…
Abuse of Power….
Obstruction of Justice…
The vote for the first charge was 230 to 197 supporting the charges
The vote for the second charge was 229 to 198 supporting the charges…
The impeachment votes set the stage for a historic trial beginning early next year in the Senate, which will have final say — 10 months before Mr. Trump faces re-election — on whether to acquit the 45th president or convict and remove him from office. The timing was uncertain, after Ms. Pelosi suggested late Wednesday that she may wait to send the articles to the Senate, holding them out as leverage in a negotiation on the terms of a trial.
Acquittal in the Republican-controlled chamber is likely, but the proceeding is certain to aggravate the political and cultural fault lines in the country that Mr. Trump’s presidency brought into dramatic relief.
On Wednesday, Democrats characterized his impeachment as an urgent action to stop a corrupt president whose misdeeds had unfolded in plain view from damaging the country any further.
“Over the course of the last three months, we have found incontrovertible evidence that President Trump abused his power by pressuring the newly elected president of Ukraine to announce an investigation into President Trump’s political rival,” said Representative Adam B. Schiff, Democrat of California and the Intelligence Committee chairman, who led the impeachment inquiry.
Far from showing contrition or contemplating resignation, as his predecessors have done in the face of impeachment, Mr. Trump instead offered an indignant defense as the House weighed his fate, raging on Twitter from the White House.
“SUCH ATROCIOUS LIES BY THE RADICAL LEFT, DO NOTHING DEMOCRATS,” the president wrote as the historic debate took place on the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue. “THIS IS AN ASSAULT ON AMERICA, AND AN ASSAULT ON THE REPUBLICAN PARTY!!!!”
Later, as members cast their votes to impeach him in Washington, Mr. Trump took the stage to roars of adulation from his supporters at an arena-style campaign rally in Battle Creek, Mich., where he brushed aside the constitutional confrontation as a “hoax” based on unfounded charges, even as he conceded that it would be a permanent blot on his presidency.
“I’m not worried,” Mr. Trump said. “You don’t do anything wrong and you get impeached. That may be a record that will last forever.”….
House Speaker Pelosi throws down a BIG surprise….
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke to the reporters after the vote and did not rule out not sending the articles to the Senate right away.
“We’ll make a decision as a group as we always have as we go along,” she said, when asked.
Some House Democrats had called on her to delay sending the articles since the Senate Republicans weren’t going to hold a full trial. Pelosi didn’t shut the door on the idea, saying that ”so far, we haven’t seen anything that looks fair to us.”
Asked if she could guarantee the articles will be sent to the Senate “at some point,” Pelosi said that was the Democrats intention, “but we will see what happens over there.”…
“The notion of impeaching Trump but holding the articles in the House has gained traction among some on the political left as a way of potentially forcing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to conduct a trial on more favorable terms for Democrats. And if no agreement is reached, some have argued, the trial could be delayed indefinitely, denying Trump an expected acquittal.”…
Note…
NOT Republican House member voted to charge Trump…
Real estate mogul, billionaire, reality show host, late-night show punch line, populist rabble rouser, norm-busting leader — impeached president.
Beyond the immediate ramifications of the all-but-certain outcome of this week’s vote, impeachment will always be attached to President Donald Trump. Years from now, it will be one of the first things students are taught about the 45th president.
It’s a reality that has tormented past presidents who faced the prospect of impeachment. In the days before his resignation, President Richard Nixon confessed to Secretary of State Henry Kissinger his fears that Watergate would define his legacy. President Bill Clinton fretted behind closed doors about how history books would paint him, even as he projected a dismissive attitude in public.
Story Continued Below
“For Trump, now impeachment will appear in the opening paragraph of his life,” said presidential historian Douglas Brinkley.
More…
The possible Pelosi holdup on sending the changes to the Senate has the media focus….
Oh for Gods sakes let’s get this thing over with.
What’s the point of this?
What?They are going to “make” the Republicans be “fair and impartial?”
Do they think Republican voters ,or those so inclined , care?
Trump isn’t going to be convicted.We all know that.
It’s over.Indeed it never was.As I’ve said from the beginning,this is a political process with the accoutrements,yet not the reality ,of a legal process.
Politically?Theres no evidence to suggest that this whole matter has changed anyone’s mind.If anything, apparently, there is slightly less support for impeachment than there was when it started.Those who have departed this site and “predicted” that ,as the facts came out , Republicans would “see the light?”Were Wrong.
End it now!Nothing good is coming from this.
Nothing.
You ARE missing the point….
Pelosi is making the guy who has tried to do his ‘own thing’ swing in the wind for as long as she can…
Like doing the impeachment ?
Pelosi has been under pressure to do things…
So?
Yes…. McConnell will do his ‘own thing’ like his leader and find Trump NO Guilty…
But the Democrats WILL have taken a piece out of Trump’s rear…
I HAVE be reminded that that President’s that have been impeached have seen their party suffer in the next general election….
Hmmmmm?
So your Uh”point”(that I missed) is that the whole object here is to take”a piece out of Trumps rear..”
In other words you are agreeing with the Republicans that this is Nothing no more than a political attack?
So what are we doing now?Measuring the amount of Trumps uh “rear “that we are taking a piece of ?
Dumb,stupid ,ridiculous, but very James like!
Jack doesn’t miss any points James.
Pretty incredible statement coming from you.
And I would think you’d like seeing Trump suffering longer….
Interesting….
What is “interesting “ about it?
Nothing is interesting about this, it is actually very scary. Our Democracy is under attack by a President who doesn’t have any respect for the law (he’s been breaking it for years).
He broke several over the Ukraine extortion demands.
I am only “interested” in beating Trump and his Republican enablers next November.
I share Jack’s annoyance at being told he “missed” the point over impeachment. Since he knows what he is talking about.
But, I do disagree, for the moment, with his conclusion.
Holding the Articles of Impeachment is the only leverage the House Democrats have to force Moscow Mitch into calling witnesses and forcing a somewhat balanced trial. Of course, she cannot hold out forever.
The public needs education on this process and they also need to be reminded that while lots of witnesses showed up for the House hearings, no one from the White House did.
John Bolton, that hero of the conservatives, hasn’t spoken under oath, but he will for a fee (but not under oath). Don McGann hasn’t been called as a witness because he refuses to appear. In fact, no one from the White House has testified. If this is allowed to stand without any push back from the Democrats and without the public education about the process, those folks in the middle will be missing much of the story.
So, it’s worth the effort to bring people before the trial to testify about their first hand knowledge of how Trump broke the law.
I would guess that if the Senate did subpoena them, they might still refuse to testify.
Man!
Could you see the Democrats licking their chops to get these guys up for testimony?????
He, he, he…
The Trump bullshit teaser on testifying????🙄🤣
Yup!
You STILL won’t admit my or Pelosi’s point….
Actually?
I KNOW U ‘get it’….
Unfortunately, the Democratic case for getting Bolton, Mulvaney, McGahn, and another senior figure to testify in the Senate trial on very real issues, is weakened (perhaps fatally) by Democratic committees denying the GOP a chance to call forth the Bidens, Christopher Steele et al. to testify in support of their crackpot alternate conspiracy theories about Hunter Biden, Burisma, Ukrainian hacking of the 2016 election, etc., etc., etc.
Politics
Whether Bill Clinton’s impeachment hurt the incumbent Democrats in 2000 is really a matter of perspective.
Besides Al Gore winning a popular majority and very nearly one in the Electoral College, one of the little-noticed or seldom-mentioned results of the 2000 election is that the Democrats unseated enough of the GOP Senate class of 1994 (6 D gains vs 2 D losses) to regain exact parity in the Senate (50 to 50), so close that the majority party in the Senate was decided by who held the casting vote (VP Joe Biden from January 3rd to January 20th, 2001, and VP Richard Cheney between Jan. 20 and Jim Jeffords’ leaving the GOP caucus in June).
…’very nearly and exact parity’, eH?