Donald Trump impeachment: president impeached following vote in House of Representatives – as it happened | US news

Today, Donald Trump became the third president in US history to be impeached. Here’s a recap:

• After a full day of debate, the House approved two articles of impeachment charging Trump with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
• Congress voted 230-197 to approve the first article and 229-198 for the second.
• Members voted overwhelmingly along party lines, with three Democrats opposing one or both articles, and one, 2020 candidate Tulsi Gabbard, voting “present”.
• While announcing the result, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has cast the impeachment as a sad, solemn occasion, shut down applause from Democrats.
• Afterward, Pelosi evaded questions about when she will hand the articles of impeachment over to the Senate, indicating that wants to first make sure that the Senate will hold a “fair” trial.
• Leader Mitch McConnell said he will address the impeachment on the Senate floor tomorrow.
• As members of the House voted to impeach him, Donald Trump carried on speaking at a campaign rally in Michigan. The moment offered a surreal split screen.
• As impeachment was being debated, an appeals court delivered a long-awaited ruling on the Affordable Care Act. The court said that the “individual mandate” provision of Obamacare was unconstitutional while punting a broader decision on whether the entire law was valid.
• And finally (just for fun): the USDA removed references to Wakanda, the fictional home of Marvel superhero Black Panther, from a list of trading partners.

A few more impeachment reactions from 2020 Dems…

Joe Biden, the only 2020 candidate name-checked in the articles of impeachment, echoed other Dremocrats and cast today as “a solemn moment for our country”

Cory Booker, who along with his 2020 competitors Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, will be participating in the Senate trial on whether to convict Trump, similarly said: “Today is a sad moment for our country.”

Amy Klobuchar, yet another Senator in the 2020 race said “the House is fulfilling their constitutional obligation”.

Meanwhile, Tulsi Gabbard, the only House member to vote “present” said she was “standing in the center”.

“After doing my due diligence in reviewing the 658-page impeachment report, I came to the conclusion that I could not in good conscience vote either yes or no,” she said.

The Hawaii representative and 2020 candidate instead introduced a resolution to censure Trump for abusing “ the powers of the Presidency for his own personal political gain” .

Analysis: Impeachment is ‘one more battle in America’s cold civil war’

Read The Guardian’s analysis of today’s historic impeachment vote, courtesy of David Smith:

While no crystal ball can truly foresee whether impeachment will help or hurt Trump in the 2020 presidential election, the House’s ultimate sanction may come to be seen simply as one more battle in America’s cold civil war. That would make it one of the most important yet least consequential votes in congressional history.

RNC and DNC issue contrasting statements on impeachment

Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel said “Nancy Pelosi and her fellow impeachment crusaders have ensured the reelection of President Trump” by voting to impeach him.

At the same time, the Democratic National Committee chair lauded those who voted for impeachment. “Those who voted for impeachment will be remembered for their courage and commitment to protecting our democracy,” said DNC chair Tom Perez.

Republicans and Democrats have stuck with tried and tested talking points, with the former continuing to cast the process as a “sham” and the latter repeating that House Dems had a constitutional responsibility to see the impeachment through.

Donald Trump is the third US president to be impeached. The moment offered a surreal split screen — as the president railed against Democrats at a rally, they cast their votes against him.

Here’s a recap of the day, in pictures:

Representative Debbie Dingell responded to Trump’s attacks against her and her late husband, writing that his “hurtful words just made my healing much harder”.

Dingell is a Democrat from Michigan, where Trump is holding a campaign rally tonight.

Now that Donald Trump has been impeached, it’s up to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi what happens next. Responding to questions from reporters, Pelosi wouldn’t say when she plans on sending the impeachment articles to the Senate, which is required to hold a trial to decide whether to remove the president from office.

“We’ll see what happens over there,” Pelosi said at her news conference, referring to the Senate. She said House Democrats would decide as “a group” when to send the articles over and name impeachment managers — House members who will make their case in the Senate trial.

Mitch McConnell, the Senate leader, said he will address the impeachment at 9:30 AM EST tomorrow morning.

Speaking at his campaign rally, Donald Trump said he regretted that Debbie Dingell, a Democratic representative from Michigan, voted to impeach him even though he allowed a state funeral to proceed for her late husband and have him “the A+ treatment”.

Trump also suggested John Dingell may be “looking up” from hell.

2020 Democratic candidates laud impeachment

Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren indicated they were ready to take up the torch in the senate.

Michael Bloomberg said the House “did its duty under the Constitution,” but added that “unfortunately, it increasingly appears that Senate Republicans will not. The issue won’t be settled until November, by the American people.”

Julian Castro suggested that Mitch McConnell should recuse himself from the Senate trial. “The Senate should do its constitutional duty. Remove Donald Trump from office,” he said.

Pete Buttigieg expressed similar sentiments. “Our lawmakers take an oath not to party but to country,” he said. “That oath is all the more important in the most difficult of times.

Nancy Pelosi would not definitively commit to sending over the articles of impeachment or naming impeachment managers.

“We cannot name managers until we see what the process is on the Senate side,” she said. “So far we haven’t seen anything that looks fair to us.”

Senate leader Mitch McConnell is “in cahoots with the lawyers of the accused,” Pelosi said, but she did not say how exactly a fair Senate trial would look .

Withholding the articles could give Pelosi some leverage over the trial as she pushes McConnell to call more witnesses.

Adam Schiff: ‘Will the Senate uphold its duty?’

“The question is whether the majority leader will allow a fair trial,” Shiff said, having seen the impeachment inquiry he led come to a close. “We have done our duty in the House, we have upheld the constitution. The question now is will the senate uphold its duty?”

He urged senators to call more witnesses and demand to see documents that the president has withheld. “The president not only abused his office but threatens to abuse it again,” Schiff said.

Nancy Pelosi said today is a “sad day” for the country. “The president’s reckless activities necessitated us having to introduce articles of impeachment,” she said, before thanking the various House committee leaders who spearheaded the impeachment inquiry.

House Judiciary chair Jerrold Nadler added that the “no one, not even the president is above the law”.

Donald Trump continued to speak at a campaign rally in Battle Creek, Michigan as a majority of the House voted to pass both articles of impeachment.

“The do-nothing Democrats are declaring their deep hatred and disdain for the American people,” he told the crowd. “This lawless partisan impeachment is a political suicide march for the Democrat party.”

In a statement, Trump’s press secretary Stephanie Grisham said the president is “confident the Senate will restore regular order, fairness, and due process, all of which were ignored in the House proceedings”.

“He is prepared for the next steps and confident that he will be fully exonerated,” she said.

The House has now passed the second article of impeachment, which is obstruction of Congress. The final vote was 229-198, with only Democratic congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard voting “present.”

Trump has been impeached on both abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, and the two articles will now taken up by the Senate in a trial to determine whether he should be removed from office.

It is widely expected the president will be acquitted by the Republican-controlled Senate, but the importance of this moment cannot be understated.

A majority of the House of representatives has declared that Trump has abused his power and obstructed Congress, and he will go down in history as only the third US president to ever be impeached.

Democratic congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, who voted “present” on both articles of impeachment, has issued a statement explaining her stance, which will certainly prove controversial with the rest of her caucus.

“After doing my due diligence in reviewing the 658-page impeachment report, I came to the conclusion that I could not in good conscience vote either yes or no,” Gabbard said in the statement.

This moment is quickly going viral. After the first article of impeachment officially passed, speaker Nancy Pelosi appeared to shush the House Democrats who started to applaud.

Pelosi has emphasized throughout the day that this is a “sad” occasion, and the speaker reportedly instructed her caucus not to appear celebratory of the inevitable result.