Trump has denied wrongdoing and called the impeachment inquiry, launched by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in September, a "witch hunt."
Donald Trump becomes the third President in the history of the United States to be impeached. (File photo, source: AP)
The majority of lawmakers in the US House of Representatives voted Thursday to impeach President Donald Trump on charges that he abused his power by trying to pressure Ukraine to investigate political rival Joe Biden ahead of the 2020 Presidential election.
With this, the 73-year-old has become the third President in the history of the United States to be impeached, the others being Bill Clinton and Andrew Johnson.
The Democratic-led House passed the abuse of power article of impeachment on a largely party-line 230-197 vote. Subsequently, the House proceeded with a vote on the second article of impeachment charging the New York real estate mogul with obstruction of Congress. Read in Malayalam
Trump has denied wrongdoing and called the impeachment inquiry, launched by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in September, a “witch hunt.”
The matter will now go to the Republican-controlled Senate for a trial. While Democrats hold the majority in the House, Republicans control the Senate and are expected to acquit Trump of the charges beginning next year, ahead of early state presidential primary voting.
It requires a two-thirds majority in the 100-member Senate to convict and remove a president from office. No president in the 243-year history of the United States has been removed from office by impeachment. In Trump’s case, at least 20 Republicans would have to join Democrats in voting against the US President- and none have indicated they will.
“I believe that a President can’t be removed from office if there is no reasonable possibility that the Senate won’t convict and remove the President – Then the House should not be Impeaching the President in the first place. If this is the new standard, every President from here on out is impeachable,” Trump had tweeted ahead of the vote.
In the end here, nothing happened. We don’t approach anything like the egregious conduct that should be necessary before a President should be removed from office. I believe that a President can’t be removed from office if there is no reasonable possibility that the Senate..
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SUCH ATROCIOUS LIES BY THE RADICAL LEFT, DO NOTHING DEMOCRATS. THIS IS AN ASSAULT ON AMERICA, AND AN ASSAULT ON THE REPUBLICAN PARTY!!!!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 18, 2019
Impeachment is a remedy devised by the United States’ founders, wary of a monarch on American soil after breaking away from Britain and King George III in the 18th century, to enable Congress to remove a president who has committed “high crimes and misdemeanors.”
(With inputs from AP, Reuters)
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