House panel debates late for historic Trump impeachment vote
WASHINGTON
(AP) — The House Judiciary Committee lumbered toward a historic vote
late Thursday night to approve articles of impeachment against President
Donald Trump, splitting sharply along party lines in a grueling
session. It was expected to end with charges being sent to the full
House for action next week, before the holidays.
The committee,
made up of some of the most strident Democrats and Republicans in
Congress, clashed for more than 13 hours as Republicans insisted on
lengthy debate on amendments designed to kill the two formal charges.
They kept up the late-night endeavor though they won no votes from the
majority Democrats and had no hope of winning any.
Trump is accused, in the first article, of abusing his presidential power by asking Ukraine to investigate
his 2020 rival, Joe Biden, while holding military aid as leverage, and,
in the second, of obstructing Congress by blocking the House’s efforts
to probe his actions.
Trump is only the fourth U.S. president to
face impeachment proceedings and the first to be running for reelection
at the same time. He insists he did nothing wrong and blasts the
Democrats’ effort daily as a sham and harmful to America. Republican
allies seem unwavering in their opposition to expelling Trump, and he
claims to be looking ahead to swift acquittal in a Senate trial.
Speaker
Nancy Pelosi sounded confident Thursday that Democrats, who once tried
to avoid a solely partisan effort, will have the votes to impeach the
president without Republican support when the full House votes. But she
said it was up to individual lawmakers to weigh the evidence.
“The
fact is we take an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the
United States,” Pelosi told reporters. “No one is above the law; the
president will be held accountable for his abuse of power and for his
obstruction of Congress.”
The outcome poses potentially serious
political consequences for both parties ahead of the 2020 elections,
with Americans deeply divided over whether the president indeed
conducted impeachable acts and if it should be up to Congress, or the
voters, to decide whether he should remain in office.
The
president has refused to participate in the proceedings, tweeting
criticisms as he did Thursday from the sidelines, mocking the charges
against him in the House’s nine-page resolution as “impeachment light.”
But Pelosi said the president was wrong and the case against him is
deeply grounded.
Democrats contend that Trump has engaged in a
pattern of misconduct toward Russia dating back to the 2016 election
campaign that special counsel Robert Mueller investigated. And they say
his dealings with Ukraine have benefited its aggressive neighbor Russia,
not the U.S., and he must be prevented from “corrupting” U.S. elections
again and cheating his way to a second term next year.
“It is urgent,” Pelosi said.
But
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said late Thursday on Fox News,
“There is zero chance the president will be removed from office.” He
said he was hoping to have no GOP defections in the Senate trial next
year.
The Judiciary Committee session drew out over two days, with
both sides appealing to Americans’ sense of history — Democrats
describing a duty to stop what one called the president’s
“constitutional crime spree” and Republicans decrying what one said was
the “hot garbage’’ impeachment and what it means for the future of the
country.
Trump, apparently watching the live proceedings on television, tweeted his disapproval.
“Very sad,” Trump said.
As
lawmakers dug in for the second day at the stately hearing room in the
Capitol, Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., immediately asked for a full
reading of the two articles of impeachment against the president
as TV cameras carried the live proceedings . Then came a long day of
fights over amendments, primarily by Republicans trying to stop the
impeachment. They were being rejected by Democrats along party lines.
“The
central issue of this impeachment is the corruption of our institutions
that safeguard democracy by our president,” Nadler said. “We cannot
tolerate a president subverting the fairness and integrity of our
elections.”
The top Republican, Rep. Doug Collins of Georgia,
called the proceedings a “farce” and said they should be halted until
his side was provided a chance for its own hearing. The request was
denied, with the chairman saying the process was in line with the
impeachment hearings of Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton.
First up
was an amendment from GOP Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, who tried to delete
the first charge against Trump. “This amendment strikes article one
because article one ignores the truth,” he declared.
Rep. David
Cicilline, D-R.I., argued there was “overwhelming evidence” that the
president with his lawyer Rudy Giuliani, in pushing Ukraine to
investigate rival Biden, was engaged in an abuse of power “to corrupt
American elections.”
Debate on that one amendment lasted for hours before it was defeated, 23-17, on a party-line vote.
Another
amendment, from Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., sought to replace part of the
article that says Trump “corruptly solicited” Ukraine to launch an
investigation into Biden with his reference to Biden’s son Hunter Biden
and the gas company in Ukraine where he served on the board. That, too,
was rejected by the panel on party lines. Others followed.
Republicans
say Democrats are impeaching the president because they can’t beat him
in 2020. Democrats warn Americans can’t wait for the next election
because they worry what Trump will try next.
“People who know
right from wrong are listening,” said Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif. Gaetz
shot back, “They’re right, they can’t wait.”
Thursday’s hearing picked up where Wednesday’s late-night session left off.
Into
the night, Democrats and Republicans delivered sharp, poignant and, at
times, personal arguments for and against impeachment. Cicilline asked
Republicans standing with Trump to “wake up” and honor their oath of
office. Republican Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana responded with his own
request to “put your country over party.” Rep. Lou Correa, D-Calif.,
shared his views in English and Spanish.
One Democrat, Rep. Val
Demings of Florida, told the panel that, as a descendant of slaves and
now a member of Congress, she has faith in America because it is
“government of the people” and in this country “nobody is above the
law.” Freshman Democratic Rep. Lucy McBath of Georgia emotionally talked
about losing her son to gun violence and said that while impeachment
was not why she came to Washington, she wants to “fight for an America
that my son Jordan would be proud of.”
But Jordan of Ohio insisted
Democrats were impeaching because “they don’t like us” — referring to
Trump voters in what he called “fly-over” states like his.
Said Nadler: “History will look back on our actions here today. How would you be remembered?”
One Republican, Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan, who is not on the panel, announced Thursday he would not support impeachment.
The
House is expected to vote on the articles next week, in the days before
Christmas. That would send them to the Senate for a 2020 trial.
___
Associated Press writers Laurie Kellman, Alan Fram, Padmananda Rama and David Eggert contributed to this report.