Democrats said they had “no choice” but to formally charge the 73-year-old Republican, whose impeachment along stark party lines places an indelible stain on his record while driving a spike ever deeper into the US political divide.
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“What is at risk here is the very idea of America,” said Adam Schiff, the lawmaker who led the impeachment inquiry, ahead of the vote.
The House vote came four months after a whistleblower blew open the scandal of Trump pressuring Ukraine’s president to investigate his potential White House challenger in 2020, the veteran Democrat Joe Biden.
After a marathon 10-hour debate, lawmakers also voted 229-198 to approve the second article of impeachment facing Trump — for obstructing the congressional probe into his Ukraine dealings.
In an extraordinary split screen moment, as the House was casting votes to impeach him, thousands of Trump’s most fervent supporters were cheering him at a rally in Michigan where he railed against a “radical left” he said was “consumed with hatred.”
Despite testimony from 17 officials that Trump leveraged his office for political gain, the president maintained his innocence throughout the impeachment inquiry — denouncing it as an “attempted coup” and an “assault on America.”
– ‘Threat to national security’ –
White House spokesperson Stephanie Grisham blasted the House vote as “one of the most shameful political episodes in the history of our Nation,” saying Trump “is prepared for the next steps and confident that he will be fully exonerated.
