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<p>WASHINGTON &#8212; President Donald Trump was impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives Wednesday night, becoming only the third American chief executive to be formally charged under the Constitution&#8217;s ultimate remedy for high crimes and misdemeanors.</p><p>The historic vote split along party lines, much the way it has divided the nation, over a charge that the 45th president abused the power of his office by enlisting a foreign government to investigate a political rival ahead of the 2020 election. The House then approved a second charge, that he obstructed Congress in its investigation.</p><p>The articles of impeachment, the political equivalent of an indictment, now go to the Senate for trial. If Trump is acquitted by the Republican-led chamber, as expected, he still would have to run for reelection carrying the enduring stain of impeachment on his purposely disruptive presidency.</p><p>&#8220;The president is impeached,&#8221; Pelosi declared after the vote. She called it &#8220;great day for the Constitution of the United States, a sad one for America that the president&#8217;s reckless activities necessitated us having to introduce articles of impeachment.&#8221; Trump, who began Wednesday tweeting his anger at the proceedings, pumped his fist before an evening rally in Battle Creek, Michigan, boasting of &#8220;tremendous support&#8221; in the Republican Party and saying, &#8220;By the way it doesn&#8217;t feel like I&#8217;m being impeached.&#8221;</p><p>The votes for impeachment were 230-197-1 on the first charge, 229-198-1 on the second.</p><p>Democrats led Wednesday night&#8217;s voting, framed in what many said was their duty to protect the Constitution and uphold the nation&#8217;s system of checks and balances. Republicans stood by their party&#8217;s leader, who has frequently tested the bounds of civic norms. Trump called the whole affair a &#8220;witch hunt,&#8221; a &#8220;hoax&#8221; and a &#8220;sham,&#8221; and sometimes all three.</p><p>The trial is expected to begin in January in the Senate, where a vote of two-thirds is necessary for conviction. While Democrats had the majority in the House to impeach Trump, Republicans control the Senate and few if any are expected to diverge from plans to acquit the president ahead of early state election-year primary voting.</p><p>Pelosi, once reluctant to lead Democrats into a partisan impeachment, gaveled both votes closed, risking her majority and speakership to follow the effort to its House conclusion.</p><p>No Republicans voted for impeachment, and Democrats had only slight defections on their side. Voting was conducted manually with ballots, to mark the moment.</p><p>On the first article, abuse of power, two Democrats, Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey, who is considering switching parties to become a Republican, and Collin Peterson of Minnesota voted against impeaching Trump. On the second article, obstruction, those two and freshman Rep. Jared Golden of Maine voted against. Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, who is running for president, voted &#8220;present&#8221; on both. What Pelosi called a sad and solemn moment for the country, coming in the first year after Democrats swept control of the House, unfolded in a caustic daylong session that showcased the nation&#8217;s divisions.</p><p>The House impeachment resolution laid out in stark terms the articles of impeachment against Trump stemming from his July phone call when he asked the Ukrainian president for a &#8220;favor&#8221; &#8212; to announce he was investigating Democrats including potential 2020 rival Joe Biden. At the time, Zelenskiy, new to politics and government, was seeking a coveted White House visit to show backing from the U.S. as he confronted a hostile Russia at his border. He was also counting on $391 million in military aid already approved by Congress. The White House delayed the funds, but Trump eventually released the money once Congress intervened.</p><p>Narrow in scope but broad in its charges, the impeachment resolution said the president &#8220;betrayed the nation by abusing his high office to enlist a foreign power in corrupting democratic elections,&#8221; and then obstructing Congress&#8217; oversight like &#8220;no president&#8221; in U.S. history.</p><p>&#8220;President Trump, by such conduct, has demonstrated that he will remain a threat to national security and the Constitution if allowed to remain in office,&#8221; it said.</p><p>Republicans argued that Democrats were impeaching Trump because they can&#8217;t beat him in 2020.</p><p>Said Rep. Chris Stewart of Utah: &#8220;They want to take away my vote and throw it in the trash.&#8221;</p><p>But Democrats warned the country cannot wait for the next election to decide whether Trump should remain in office because he has shown a pattern of behavior, particularly toward Russia, and will try to corrupt U.S. elections again.</p><p>&#8220;The president and his men plot on,&#8221; said Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., of the Intelligence Committee that led the inquiry. &#8220;The danger persists. The risk is real.&#8221; The outcome brings the Trump presidency to a milestone moment that has been building almost from the time the New York businessman-turned-reality-TV host unexpectedly won the White House in 2016 amid questions about Russian interference in the U.S. election.</p><p>Democrats drew from history, the founders and their own experiences, as minorities, women and some immigrants to the U.S. spoke of seeking to honor their oath of office to uphold the Constitution. Rep. Lou Correa of California spoke in Spanish asking God to unite the nation. &#8220;In America,&#8221; said Hakeem Jeffries of New York, &#8220;no one is above the law.&#8221;</p><p>Republicans aired Trump-style grievances about what Arizona Rep. Debbie Lesko called a &#8220;rigged&#8221; process.</p><p>&#8220;We face this horror because of this map,&#8221; said Rep. Clay Higgins of Alabama before a poster of red and blue states. &#8220;They call this Republican map flyover country, they call us deplorables, they fear our faith, they fear our strength, they fear our unity, they fear our vote, and they fear our president.&#8221;</p><p>The political fallout from the vote will reverberate across an already polarized country with divergent views of Trump&#8217;s July phone call when he asked Zelenskiy to investigate Democrats in the 2016 election, Biden and Biden&#8217;s son Hunter, who worked on the board of a gas company in Ukraine while his father was the vice president.</p><p>Trump has repeatedly implored Americans to read the transcript of the call he said was &#8220;perfect.&#8221; But the facts it revealed, and those in an anonymous whistleblower&#8217;s complaint that sparked the probe, are largely undisputed.</p><p>More than a dozen current and former White House officials and diplomats testified for hours in impeachment hearings. The open and closed sessions under oath revealed what one called the &#8220;irregular channel&#8221; of foreign policy run by Trump&#8217;s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, which focused on investigating the Bidens and alternative theories of 2016 election interference.</p><p>The question for lawmakers was whether the revelations amounted to impeachable offenses. Few lawmakers crossed party lines.</p><p>Van Drew, who is considering changing parties over his opposition to impeachment, sat with Republicans. Rep. Justin Amash, the Michigan conservative who left the Republican party and became an independent over impeachment, said: &#8220;I come to this floor, not as a Republican, not as a Democrat, but as an American.&#8221; Beyond the impeachments of Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, this first impeachment of the 21st century is as much about what the president might do in the future as what he did in the past. The investigation of Richard Nixon ended when he resigned rather than face the House vote over Watergate.</p><p>Rank and file Democrats said they were willing to lose their jobs to protect the democracy from Trump. Some newly elected freshmen remained in the chamber for hours during the debate.</p><p>Top Republicans, including Rep. Devin Nunes on the Intelligence Committee, called the Ukraine probe little more than a poor sequel to special counsel Robert Mueller&#8217;s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election.</p><p>Mueller spent two years investigating the potential links between Moscow and the Trump campaign but testified in July that his team could not establish that Trump conspired or coordinated with Russia to throw the election. Mueller did say he could not exonerate Trump of trying to obstruct the investigation, but he left that for Congress to decide.</p><p>The next day, Trump called Ukraine. Not quite four months later, a week before Christmas, Trump was impeached.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., speaks as the House of Representatives debates the articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2019. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/web1_124182984-77fcf66d4fb941539b95959ef64d3ae1-4.jpg</photo0><caption0>House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., speaks as the House of Representatives debates the articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2019. </caption0><photoCredit0>House Television via AP </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/web1_124182984-425d257edc324d248d9def2beef27592-4.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">President Donald Trump leaves the White House for a campaign trip to Battle Creek, Mich., Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2019 in Washington. President Donald Trump is on the cusp of being impeached by the House, with a historic debate set Wednesday on charges that he abused his power and obstructed Congress ahead of votes that will leave a defining mark on his tenure at the White House. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/web1_124182984-425d257edc324d248d9def2beef27592-4.jpg</photo1><caption1>President Donald Trump leaves the White House for a campaign trip to Battle Creek, Mich., Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2019 in Washington. President Donald Trump is on the cusp of being impeached by the House, with a historic debate set Wednesday on charges that he abused his power and obstructed Congress ahead of votes that will leave a defining mark on his tenure at the White House. </caption1><photoCredit1>Steve Helber | Associated Press </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/web1_124182984-122a2ccd3caa4853a9eb94d8ef866033-4.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., speaks as the House of Representatives debates the articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump at the Capitol in Washington on Wednesday. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/web1_124182984-122a2ccd3caa4853a9eb94d8ef866033-4.jpg</photo2><caption2>House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., speaks as the House of Representatives debates the articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump at the Capitol in Washington on Wednesday. </caption2><photoCredit2>House Television via AP </photoCredit2></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/web1_AP19352543283648.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Protesters demonstrate as the House of Representatives begins debate on the articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump at the U.S. Capitol building Wednesday on Capitol Hill in Washington. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo3>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/web1_AP19352543283648.jpg</photo3><caption3>Protesters demonstrate as the House of Representatives begins debate on the articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump at the U.S. Capitol building Wednesday on Capitol Hill in Washington. </caption3><photoCredit3>Matt Rourke | Associated Press </photoCredit3></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/web1_AP19353060870276.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Kellogg Arena on Wednesday in Battle Creek, Mich. The House passed two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump at the Capitol in Washington on Wednesday. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo4>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/web1_AP19353060870276.jpg</photo4><caption4>President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Kellogg Arena on Wednesday in Battle Creek, Mich. The House passed two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump at the Capitol in Washington on Wednesday. </caption4><photoCredit4>Matt Rourke | Associated Press </photoCredit4></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Lisa Mascaro and Mary Clare Jalonick</p><p>Associated Press</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p><strong>AREA LEGISLATORS RESPOND TO IMPEACHMENT</strong></p><p><strong>U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser, R-Dallas:</strong></p><p>&#8220;Tonight marks the culmination of a nearly three-year effort to nullify the lawful election of President Donald J. Trump. Since the day he was sworn in, the priority of House Democrats has been to scrutinize, delegitimize, charge with crimes, and remove from office the duly-elected President of the United States.</p><p>&#8220;The process, players, and underlying proof at the heart of this impeachment have been fundamentally flawed and brazenly biased.</p><p>&#8220;Democrat leadership has stacked the deck at every stage of this process: cherry-picking rehearsed witnesses, hiding exculpatory evidence, limiting dissenting views, and denying the President meaningful participation and due process.&#8216;the whistleblower.&#8217;</p><p>&#8220;Even with a flawed process led by partisan players, Democrats still failed to provide any proof of Presidential wrongdoing. After months of polling and focus group testing aimed at creating the most politically advantageous allegations against our President, Democrat leadership arrived at &#8216;abuse of power&#8217; and &#8216;obstruction of Congress.&#8217; These vague terms attempt to mask the fact that months of congressional investigations have produced one simple and undeniable fact: President Trump did not commit an impeachable offense.</p><p>&#8220;This entire year has been a period of opportunity lost. Rather than working to improve the lives of the American public, this Democrat-led Congress has focused its full time and attention on passing partisan legislation and driving political outcomes. I look forward to the new year of 2020 and enacting legislation to benefit seniors, veterans, farmers, and families. As the Senate will hold a fair trial to evaluate this case &#8211; without presumption &#8211; I am 100 percent confident the President will not be removed from office. In spite of the Democrats&#8217; desperate tactics to win the White House by removing the President, the people will ultimately decide who will be elected in 2020.&#8221;</p><p><strong>U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa. </strong></p><p>&#8220;Today marks the culmination of a highly partisan process that achieved a longstanding goal of many House Democrats: impeaching President Trump.</p><p>&#8220;It is my hope that the process in the Senate will be fair, unlike the process in the House where the controversial tactics used by Speaker Pelosi and Chairmen Nadler and Schiff broke with bipartisan precedent and denied the president the due process rights afforded to past presidents.</p><p>&#8220;In a Senate trial, House impeachment managers should be permitted to make their case, and the president&#8217;s lawyers should be able to make their defense. At the conclusion of these presentations, the Senate can then decide what further steps may be necessary.&#8221;</p><p><strong>U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa. (via Twitter)</strong></p><p>&#8220;This is a sad day in our Nation&#8217;s history.</p><p>&#8220;When it was revealed in September that President Trump pressured a foreign government to investigate a political opponent, I believed it was a textbook case of abuse of power that demanded action. As a result, I have supported the House inquiry since its initiation this fall.</p><p>&#8220;This investigation has been conducted in a deliberate, fair and serious manner reflective of the grave nature of the charges against the President.</p><p>&#8220;The Founding Fathers gave the United States Senate the grave responsibility to &#8216;try all impeachments,&#8217; and we have a constitutional obligation to conduct a fair and thorough trial.</p><p>&#8220;As a juror I will carefully consider all of the evidence in accordance with my oath of office to support and defend the Constitution of the United States.&#8221;</p></factboxMeta></div>

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President Donald Trump impeached by US House on 2 charges