Just over two months after opening an impeachment inquiry into President Trump, Democrats Tuesday unveiled two articles of impeachment: one for abuse of power and a second for obstruction of Congress.
Trump “compromised our national security and threatened the integrity of our elections” and then “attempted to conceal the evidence from Congress and from the American people,” said House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-NY.
“He endangers the constitution, he endangers our democracy, and he endangers our national security” Nadler said at a morning press conference inside the U.S. Capitol.
“We do not take this action lightly, but we have taken an oath to defend the Constitution and unlike President Trump we understand that our duty first and foremost is to protect the Constitution and to protect the interests of the American people,” Nadler said.
Nadler’s Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing to debate and vote on the articles “later this week,” he said.
Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel denounced the move as “a partisan attempt to overthrow a duly-elected President and rob voters of the chance to re-elect him in 2020.”
Pelosi did not say when the full House will vote on the charges, but it is expected to do so next week. If a majority of the House approves the articles — which is likely given the Democrats 233-to-197 majority — the charges would go to the Senate for a trial to decide whether the president will be removed from office.
Republicans control the Senate 53-to-47 and are not expected to remove the president, especially since doing so requires a 67-vote super majority.
Democrats have known all along that the most likely outcome would be a House impeachment followed by a Senate acquittal, barring any dramatic developments. That has dictated their strategy, which has been to present a sober-minded and united effort to establish facts about what the president did to pressure Ukraine to help him get reelected in 2020.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) speaks next to House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler(L), Democrat of New York, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence as they announce articles of impeachment for US President Donald Trump during a press conference at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, December 10, 2019.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., oversaw the investigative phase of the inquiry, holding closed-door depositions, then releasing transcripts of those depositions, and then holding public hearings to allow the public to hear from those witnesses directly.
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