McCarthy, T. (2019, December 19). Donald Trump impeached by House of Representatives in historic vote. the Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/dec/18/trump-impeachment-house-vote-nancy-pelosi-latest

According to McCarthy, when Donald Trump was about to celebrate his 3rd year anniversary as President of the United States, he was impeached in amostly party-line vote in the House of Representatives. The impeachment vote followed a full day discussion that ended in a 230-197 first article vote of impeachment charges and a second article vote charging Trump with obstruction of Congress approved by 229-198.

Following the House of Representatives voting, Trump was to face a trial before the Senate and was expected to be acquitted since the Senate was Republican majority. Before the trials began the Democrats and the Republicans had to negotiate the terms of the trial. Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker said that the proceedings were a sad day for the United States. She said, “The president’s reckless activities necessitated us having to introduce articles of impeachment.” The author says that when Pelosi was opening the discussions in the House, she had described Trump as an ongoing threat to national security and the integrity of elections. She was forthright with her stand, warning the House that the founding fathers’ vision of the nation was under threat by actions from the White House, referring to Trump’s actions.

The Democrats believed that Trump was pursuing a scheme to cheat in upcoming 2020 elections by pressuring Ukrainian President to create tarnishing news about former vice-president Joe Biden. Trump was also accused of blocking congressional oversight. A Republican, Doug Collins of Georgia said that the impeachment was inevitable under Democrats. Collins said that Trump had not committed the crime.

The Republicans accused the Democrats of having a vendetta against Trump. On the other hand, the Democrats said that the Republicans did not defend Trump on the merits. That they had no real defense of Trump’s actions. Upon receiving the news, Donald Trump said that the Republicans will do the right thing.

Trump became the 3rd president to be impeached in the United States, the others being Andrew Jackson in 1868, and Bill Clinton in 1998. However, in 1974 there was a unique case when Richard Nixon resigned before he could be impeached.

The authors mention that when the votes were being cast, none of the Republican representatives voted for either of the two articles of impeachment.The Democrats said that this was because Republicans were being held captive to Trump. Despite the claim by the Democrats, three Democrats voted in favor of Trump. Two of the Democratic Representatives voted to oppose both articles of impeachment and one split his vote.

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