By Lisa Mascaro and Mary Clare Jalonick/Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Impeachment charges against President Donald Trump went to the full House on Friday, following approval by the House Judiciary Committee.
The House is expected to take up the two articles of impeachment next week.
The abuse of power charge stems from Trump's July phone call with the Ukraine president pressuring him to announce an investigation of Democrats as he was withholding US aid. The obstruction charge involves Trump's blocking of House efforts to investigate his actions. Trump has denied wrongdoing.
The vote in the House panel was split along party lines, with 23 Democrats voting in favor and 17 Republicans opposed.
Trump is accused, in the first article, of abusing his presidential power by asking Ukraine to investigate his 2020 rival Joe Biden while holding military aid as leverage, and, in the second, of obstructing Congress by blocking the House's efforts to probe his actions.
Voting came quickly after two days of hearings at the Capitol and a rancorous 14-hour session that was abruptly shut down late Thursday when the Democratic majority refused to be forced, after a long and bitter slog through failed Republican amendments aimed at killing the impeachment charges, into midnight voting. Instead, the impeachment charges against Trump were aired in full view of Americans.
Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., who had said he wanted lawmakers to “search their consciences” before casting their votes, gaveled in the landmark morning session.
Trump took to Twitter early Friday to praise the panel's Republicans, saying “they were fantastic yesterday.”
“The Dems have no case at all, but the unity & sheer brilliance of these Republican warriors, all of them, was a beautiful sight to see,” he tweeted. “Dems had no answers and wanted out!”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she has spoken to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff about preventing President Donald Trump from ordering a nuclear strike in his final days in office.
President-elect Joe Biden has introduced the governor of Rhode Island, the mayor of Boston, and a small-business advocate from California as the newest members of his economic team.
Rep. Carolyn Bourdeaux (D-Ga. 7th District), spoke with Cheddar about what's at stake with the Senate runoffs in the Peach State and asks people to remain patient with the results.
NJ Rep. Kim walked amid the mess shortly after voting to certify Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump and felt the weight of the day wearing on him when something motivated him to clean up the debris.
A police officer has died from injuries sustained as President Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol, intensifying questions about the defeated president’s remaining days in office and the ability of the Capitol police to secure the area.
Nsé Ufot, CEO of the New Georgia Project, talked to Cheddar about the long road to flipping Georgia from red to blue in the presidential and senate runoff races.
Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio discussed the lack of preparedness by law enforcement in the lead-up to the Capitol breach on Wednesday and the culpability of the president in inciting the attack.
After years of treating President Donald Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric with a light touch, Facebook and Instagram are silencing his social media accounts for the rest of his presidency.
The U.S. registered its highest deaths yet from the coronavirus on the very day the mob attack on the Capitol laid bare some of the same, deep political divisions that have hampered the battle against the pandemic.
Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts is among multiple lawmakers calling for the removal of President Trump for the assault on the Capitol that unfolded on Wednesday.
