The House of Representatives voted on Wednesday night to impeach Donald Trump for abuse of power and for obstruction of Congress, with the votes falling almost entirely along party lines.
He’s only the third American president in history impeached by the House.
The abuse of power article stems from Trump withholding aid to Ukraine and then asking their president to announce an investigation into Joe Biden and his son, Hunter. The vote on that article was 230-to-197.
The second article accuses the president of guiding “the unprecedented, categorical and indiscriminate defiance of subpoenas” from the House. It passed by a vote of 229-to-198.
Controversial Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard didn’t vote for or against both articles of impeachment. Rather, she simply voted “present,” which was a surprise to Democrats.
The Senate trial that will determine whether Trump should be removed from office is set to begin early next year. (NBC News)
Hot Takes
- This is somewhat anticlimactic, since we’ve expected it to happen for weeks.
- There’s little chance the Republican-majority Senate will vote to have Trump removed from office.
- Was this a waste of time and money or did it have to be done?