The US House approves the impeachment process against Trump
The American House of Representatives has approved the first step towards impeaching Donald Trump in a tumultuous mood. The indictment received 230 votes in favor and 197 against the impeachment.
Under packed stands, 230 Democrats voted to send Trump home for abuse of power. No Republican agreed. This indicates the outcome of the procedure: Republicans in the Senate will prevent their party members from being impeached.
A sometimes turbulent debate preceded the vote going into the history books. The prominent Democrat Adam Schiff walked back to his seat under loud booing from the Republican box when he had made a final plea for punitive measures against Trump. “Not happened!” Republicans shouted when he learned how the president had misused his power.
In his dealings with Ukraine, Trump has chosen his interests over national interests, which is the opinion of the majority of the House of Representatives. He withheld tax money to persuade Kyiv to announce an investigation that would blame his political opponent Joe Biden. He then opposed the parliamentary inquiry into this.
Only two Democrats vote against the charge of abuse of power – one of them is planning to join the Republicans. Tulsi Gabbard, a headstrong presidential candidate on behalf of the Democrats, did not vote and only declared himself ‘present’. She finds Trump guilty, but the process is too polluted by party politics, she reported in a statement. Another third Democrat voted against the second indictment of interference from Congress.
Sham display
Republicans insist that there is not enough evidence, or maintain a completely different reality in which it is no problem that Trump let his people put pressure on Ukraine to drive an essential political opponent.
They took everything out of the closet for a day to convince the country that the procedure is a sham of Democrats. Trump, said Georgia Barry Loudermilk with a sense of drama, gets fewer rights than Jesus when he stood before Pontius Pilate. Another compared the procedure with the attack on Pearl Harbor in the Second War.
And at the suggestion of a congressman from Ohio, the Republicans held a minute’s silence in the room before the Americans who voted for Trump in 2016 and were supposed to be silenced. The room became restless for a moment when Steve Scalise accused the Democrats of “hating” Trump voters and therefore wanted him away. Loud booing rose from the Democratic seats.
In the new year, the Senate addresses the same issue. This is probably where the attempt to put Trump out of office is stranded. Donald Trump has therefore been given a punitive cross: with Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, he is one of the three presidents in American history in whom the ‘house of the people’ has officially given up confidence. Richard Nixon stepped down just before his official impeachment.
