Donald Trump has been impeached by the House of
Representatives, becoming only the third US president to suffer the ignominy
and bringing him a step closer to being removed from office.
Two articles of impeachment were passed over his behaviour
in the Ukraine scandal – one for abuse of power and the other for obstruction
of Congress.
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Not a single Republican voted for either article – a fact
the White House seized on to portray the Democrats’ impeachment drive as
motivated by political bias.
The issue will now pass to the Senate, the other body that
makes up the US Congress, which will hold a trial on whether to convict and
remove Mr Trump from office next month.
But given the Republicans – Mr Trump’s party – hold the
Senate majority and two thirds of senators would need to vote for removal it is
very unlikely to happen.
Even so, impeachment creates a permanent black mark on Mr
Trump’s political legacy that he shares with only two past presidents – Andrew
Johnson and Bill Clinton.
Addressing cheering supporters at a rally in Battle Creek,
Michigan, as the House delivered its historic verdict, Mr Trump was dismissive and
defiant.
“They’ve been trying to impeach me from day one,”
he said.
“After three years of sinister witch hunts, hoaxes,
scams, tonight, House Democrats are trying to nullify the ballots of tens of
millions of patriotic Americans.”
Article one, abuse of power, passed with 230 votes to 197.
Two Democrats voted against it. Article three, obstruction of Congress, passed
with 229 votes to 197. Three Democrats voted against.
In the biggest surprise of the night, Tulsi Gabbard, the
Hawaii congresswoman running for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination,
voted ‘present’, meaning she did not back impeachment.
She later explained that US voters should be allowed to
decide Mr Trump’s fate in next November’s election. “My vote today is a vote
for much needed reconciliation and hope that together we can heal our country,”
she said in a statement.
The vote plunges Mr Trump into uncharted political waters.
No US president has ever won re-election after being impeached.
Mr Johnson, impeached in 1868, failed to win his party’s
next presidential nomination. Bill Clinton, impeached in 1998, stood down when
his second term ended in January 2000.
Yet there are perils, too, for the Democrats. The country is
split down the middle on impeachment according to polls and moderate Democrats
seeking re-election in pro-Trump districts could face a backlash.
Mr Trump, who had tweeted his fury and urged supporters to
pray for him throughout Wednesday, showed no signs of remorse over the scandal
which triggered impeachment during his rally.
“Crazy Nancy Pelosi’s House Democrats have branded
themselves with an eternal mark of shame,” the president said, referencing
the Democratic House speaker who decided to go for impeachment.
The Democrats have a comfortable majority in the House,
which allowed them to win the impeachment vote without any Republican support.
“Every single Republican voted for us,” Mr Trump
said, reacting to the result in real time. “The Republican Party has never
been so affronted but they have never been so united as they are right
now.”
It was a message echoed by the White House, which
immediately issued a statement after the vote in the name of Mr Trump’s press
secretary, Stephanie Grisham.
The opening line read: “Today marks the culmination in the
House of one of the most shameful political episodes in the history of our
Nation.”
The two Democrats who voted against both articles of
impeachment were Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey, who is now expected to join the
Republicans, and Collin Peterson of Minnesota.
Both hold districts which are supportive of Mr Trump. Jared
Golden, a Democrat from Maine, voted against the obstruction of Congress
article.
Congressmen had rushed forward to the front of the House
chamber when the first vote was called, signing red or green voting slips
representing “nay” or “yea” and then handing them to the clerks to count.
There was a ripple of applause from Democrats when the first
article of impeachment passed, but Ms Pelosi motioned for silence and their
clapping soon stopped.
Ms Pelosi has repeatedly called impeachment a sad and solemn
process, wary of appearing too partisan to voters. She wore black for the day
of the vote itself.
“We could not be prouder or more inspired than by the moral
courage of the House Democrats,” Ms Pelosi said in a press conference
afterwards. “We never asked one of them how they were going to vote. We never
whipped this vote.”
With less than a year to go before the election, Mr Trump’s
campaign began the fightback against the impeachment vote within minutes of the
result.
A fundraising email sent in Mr Trump’s name called for $4
million to be raised in the next 24 hours. “It’s US against THEM in this
impeachment war,” it read. “And we need to strike first.”
(Telegraph)