Trump impeachment: House impeaches president in historic vote along party lines
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The House has voted to impeach Donald Trump, making him the third president in American history to receive such a censure.
After roughly eight hours of debate, the House of Representatives gathered to vote and ultimately charged him with abusing the power of his office by attempting to extort a political favour from Ukraine. The House then voted on a second article of impeachment, approving formal charges that Mr Trump had obstructed Congress during the subsequent congressional investigation into his conduct.
The Senate will now take up the approved impeachment articles in the new year.
Defiant as ever, Mr Trump walked onstage at a rally in Michigan just as the House began voting — and was bragging about his Space Force and mocking stock market jitters as the first article of impeachement was approved. Before it became official, as the vote crept towards approving the first article of impeachment, Mr Trump was interrupted by a protester, who he suggested was treated too well by security forces — and that they should have been tougher on her.
Before the vote and rally, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius described a letter sent by Mr Trump to House speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday as “the most unpresidential presidential document ever written” on MSNBC’s Morning Joe after rallies backing the impeachment process were held in cities across the country on Tuesday evening.
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Rep. Will Hurd, one of a few Republicans who has been willing to criticize Donald Trump in the past, says "a dangerous precedent will be set" today, of "impeachment becoming a weaponized political tool".
The Texas Republican -- the only black Republican in the House -- says that Mr Trump's actions represent a "bungling foreign policy" but are not impeachable offenses. Some Democrats had hoped he would join them in voting for impeachment, as he is retiring after this year.
Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, is now accusing Democrats of using impeachment to thwart an investigation into Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election. Russia -- not Ukraine -- interfered in the US election.
Gohmert also accused Ukraine of invading Georgia in 2014. It was Russia that invaded Georgia, not Ukraine.
After he finished, House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler says he is "very concerned" that a member would "spout Russian propaganda" on the House floor. Gohmert proceeded to scream at Nadler some more.
Rep. Adam Schiff, the House Intelligence Committee chair, is currently sitting in the front row of the House chamber.
Nadler has designated Rep. Schiff to control the rest of Democrats’ time. Mr Schiff is now delivering a scathing denunciation of President Trump’s habit of asking foreign governments to help him win elections.
"He tried to cheat, and he got caught," Adam Shiff said, cheering on the bravery of the whistleblower.
He said Mr Trump thought he could get away with his efforts to coerce Volodymyr Zelensky, but was caught by this impeachment effort.
Schiff says President Trump did not care about corruption in Ukraine or Ukraine’s ongoing war with Russia, he “only cared about a chance to cheat” in next year’s election.
Schiff notes that Rudy Giuliani is still trying to generate sham investigations into the Bidens: “the President and his men plot on,” he says
Schiff says Republicans “have made their choice” to allow President Trump to cheat because it helps their party.
“Donald J Trump sacrificed our security in an attempt to cheat in the next election...and for that...he must be impeached,” Schiff says to conclude his remarks
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