December 19, 2019, 09:54 AM
The United States House of Representatives voted 229 to 197 to impeach President Donald Trump on the morning of Dec. 19, 2019, Singapore time.
The vote is mostly along party lines, pitting Democrats against Republicans.
A vote to impeach the president has set up a trial in the Senate that will decide whether Trump remains in office.
The Articles of Impeachment
The House debated for six hours on two articles of impeachment, according to The New York Times:
- Abuse of power, for pressuring the President of Ukraine to assist his 2020 re-election campaign by damaging his likely rivals in the Democrat party.
- Obstruction of Congress, for blocking testimony and refusing to provide documents in response to subpoenas from the House in the impeachment inquiry.
The impeachment comes after weeks of both public and closed-door hearings from officials, including:
- Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch.
- Former special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker.
- Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland.
- Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire.
Others, such as former National Security Adviser John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo refused to comply with requests to testify, under directions from the White House.
Third U.S. President impeached in history
With the vote, Trump becomes only the third president in American history to have been impeached.
The first was Andrew Johnson, the man who took over after President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated.
He was impeached in 1868 for violating the Tenure of Office Act, among other things.
The second was Bill Clinton, who was impeached for perjury and obstruction of justice in connection to the Monica Lewinsky scandal in 1998.
Richard Nixon faced the prospect of impeachment in 1974 in connection with the Watergate scandal, but resigned before the House could vote, and was not technically impeached.
What happens next
Having successfully voted for impeachment, it is now up to Senate to conduct a trial to decide if Trump's conduct warrants removal from his office.
The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, John Roberts, will preside over the trial.
A two-thirds majority vote in the Senate, or 67 out of 100 Senators, is required to convict and remove Trump from office.
There are currently 53 Republicans in the Senate.
However, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, has publicly stated that he will be coordinating with the White House on the trial.
Mitch McConnell: Everything I do during this, I’m coordinating with White House Counsel. There will be no difference between the President’s position and our position as to how to handle this pic.twitter.com/baFaTKWvUl
— Acyn (@Acyn) December 13, 2019
While some Democrats have called on McConnell to recuse himself following those remarks, McConnell said that the same thing happened during Clinton's impeachment trial.
None of the impeached presidents mentioned above were removed by the Senate.
Effect on 2020
Trump is going down in the history books but this result could turbocharge his 2020 re-election bid for a second term as he rallies his base.
The House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was always wary about going down the impeachment route.
During the House debates, Trump tweeted several times, calling the Democratic arguments "ATROCIOUS LIES BY THE RADICAL LEFT" and an "ASSAULT ON THE REPUBLICAN PARTY!!!!".
The Republican Party has a majority in the Senate, making it highly unlikely the president will be removed from office when senators cast their votes.
Related story:
Top image by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images
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