House Democrats advanced articles of impeachment against President Trump with a party-line floor vote to approve six hours of debate.
The vote was 228-197. Two Democrats voted against advancing the articles: Reps. Collin Peterson of Minnesota and Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey, who has plans to become a Republican. The two lawmakers were the only Democrats to vote earlier this year against sanctioning an impeachment investigation.
House Democrats and Republicans have been battling over impeachment for weeks, and the fight officially moved to the House floor on Wednesday.
It will culminate in a final vote, tentatively set for around 7 p.m., on each of two impeachment articles that accuse Trump of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
Trump is poised to become the third president in history to be impeached by Congress, but just as Presidents Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, he is all but guaranteed to be acquitted in the Senate after a trial scheduled to begin in January.
House Democrats Wednesday sought to summarize their case against Trump based on weeks of closed-door and public testimony and Trump’s own comments. Democrats accuse the president of withholding security aid to Ukraine to coerce Ukraine government officials into pledging to investigate Democrats and former Vice President Joe Biden, who is running for president.
“Over the past several months, the House of Representatives has been conducting an impeachment inquiry into the 45th president of the United States, Donald Trump,” House Rules Committee Chairman Jim McGovern, a Massachusetts Democrat, said in the party’s opening salvo against the president. “Our inquiry set out to answer the following question: Did President Trump and his top advisers corruptly withhold official government action to obtain an improper advantage in the next election? We know now through the hard work of our investigative committees and because of the president’s own admission that the answer to that question is yes.”
Republicans opened the debate condemning the impeachment process, which they said denied Trump due process rights and produced no evidence justifying impeachment.
“Impeachment of a president is one of the most consequential acts the House of Representatives can undertake, and it should only be done after the fullest and most careful consideration,” Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma, who is the top Republican on the Rules Committee, said. “Yet today, after a truncated investigation that denied the president due process, cherry-picked evidence and witness testimony to fit their narrative and trampled on Republicans’ minority rights.”
The vote followed failed efforts by Republicans to change the course of the debate. Rep. Liz Cheney, a Wyoming Republican, called for requiring lawmakers to vote by voice, rather than electronically, on the impeachment articles.
“Members should be required to stand and identify themselves openly and on camera on the question of adoption of these articles of impeachment,” Cheney said.
Democrats rejected her motion.
The House rejected a motion by Cole that would have set six conditions in order for the House to consider impeachment, including a “minority hearing day” that would allow the GOP to call their own witnesses to testify and to subpoena witnesses.
