Daily US Times, Washington: House Judiciary Committee has advanced the articles of impeachment against President Trump with abusing power and obstructing the Congress.
Both the articles surfaced after Trump pushed Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate his political rival Joe Biden in a July phone call. The articles of impeachment read, ‘President Trump has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as a president and subversive of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of the cause of law and justice, and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States.’
The Judiciary Committee is controlled by the Democrats who won the House of Representative in the 2018 midterm election. Both articles received 23-17 vote in Friday’s vote with no defections by either Democrats or Republican. One Democrat Ted Lieu of California, missed the vote because he had just undergone heart surgery.
The full house vote on the articles of impeachment is expected in next Wednesday. The vote will also likely be along party lines. Neither Republicans expected to vote for impeachment, nor Democrats expected to vote against their party decision. Perhaps two-three Democrats possibly voting against referring the charges to the senate. Two Democrats already voted against opening the inquiry in late October. The two had been elected in a pro-Trump district. Republican celebrated their defections.
Though the voting result is predictable, it’s still remains historic. It was the first congressional vote on articles of impeachment against a sitting president since 1998 when the House Judiciary Committee voted to endorse four articles of impeachment against President Bill Clinton. Clinton was accused of committing perjury and obstructing justice in the inquiry into his extramarital affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
Like this one, that impeachment was a bitterly partisan one. One Democrats compared the impeachment to ‘a runaway train headed for a cliff.’
Now Republican also presented a similar note to defend Trump. Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz said, ‘They have subjected President Trump to more presidential harassment than at any other time in American history.’ She said this in the midst of Thursday’s debate, during which Republicans introduced amendments that were ultimately rejected.
Other than Clinton, Richard Nixon had faced impeachment for his involvement in the Watergate cover-up though he resigned before the full vote. President Andrew Johnson also faced impeachment over his replacing Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, with whom Johnson disagreed over Reconstruction.
Ahead of the vote, Trump wrote on Twitter, “How do you get Impeached when you have done NOTHING wrong.” As he has done in the past, he deemed his phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which formed the basis of the impeachment inquiry, “perfect.” And he listed his accomplishments as president, including “Jobs, Jobs, Jobs.”