House Democrats announced two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump Tuesday morning: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
Top Democrats including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff joined Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler as he announced the counts on Capitol Hill.
The president is accused of violating the U.S. Constitution when he pressured Ukraine to help investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination, ahead of the 2020 election. House leaders said the president’s actions left them no choice but to pursue the remedy prescribed in the Constitution.
“The framers of the Constitution prescribed a clear remedy for presidents who so violate their oath of office: that is the power of impeachment. Today in service to our duty to the Constitution and to our country, the House Committee on the Judiciary is introducing two articles of impeachment charging the President of the United States, Donald J. Trump, with committing high crimes and misdemeanors,” Nadler said during a press conference in the Rayburn Reception Room.
“Our president holds the ultimate public trust. When he betrays that trust and puts himself before country, he endangers the Constitution, he endangers our democracy, and he endangers our national security,” Nadler said as he and other top Democrats stood before a row of American flags and a portrait of George Washington.
After two months of investigations and public hearings, Democrats yesterday presented the full case and key allegations against the president. Democrats say the president pressured his Ukrainian counterpart to announce investigations into Biden and his son in exchange for a White House meeting and the release of $391 million in security aid, which foreign policy diplomats testified was critical to a nation engaged in a conflict with Russia. The president placed his own personal interests above that of the nation he served, violating his oath of office, threatening national security and future elections, Democrats charged. Once Congress began investigating the president’s conduct, Democrats say he interfered by ordering witnesses not to testify and attempting to withhold subpoenaed documents.
The Judiciary Committee will begin debating the articles announced this morning as soon as Wednesday. Once the Judiciary debates and votes, approved articles will be sent to the full House of Representatives. If those are passed, as it is expected they will be, the president could stand trial in the Senate in early 2020.
“Ben Franklin said we have a republic if we can keep it. The president and his men say you can’t keep it and Americans should just get over it,” Schiff said. This impeachment inquiry marks just the fourth time a president has faced such an action in the nation’s history.
After the announcement, Trump’s campaign manager Brad Parscale sent a message to supporters which read in part, “Democrats are putting on this political theater because they don’t have a viable candidate for 2020 and they know it.” The president also weighed in on Twitter:
However, Schiff said of the president’s actions, “If allowed to stand, it would decimate Congress’s ability to conduct oversight of this president or any other in the future, leaving this president and those who follow free to be as corrupt, maleficent or corrupt as they like with no prospect of discovery or accountability.”
Less than an hour after the historic press conference concluded, House leaders again joined in a press conference to announce it has struck a deal with the White House to approve a revised North American trade agreement.
