WASHINGTON -- The House Judiciary Committee on Friday voted along party lines to approve charges that President Donald Trump abused the power of his office and obstructed Congress.
After a fractious two-day debate, the Democratic-controlled committee recommended that the House ratify two articles of impeachment against the 45th president. In back-to-back votes just after 9 a.m. CST, they adopted each charge against Trump by a margin of 23-17.
The partisan result and the debate that preceded it were harbingers of a historic proceeding and vote on the House floor, expected next week, to impeach Trump, whose nearly three-year tenure has exacerbated the nation's political divisions. Trump, who insists he did nothing wrong, is now only the fourth American president in history to face impeachment by the House of Representatives for "high crimes and misdemeanors" and possible conviction and removal from office by the Senate.
The charges ratified Friday accuse the president of pressuring Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, his political rival, and an unsubstantiated theory that Democrats conspired with Ukraine to interfere in the 2016 election. He did so, Democrats say, using as leverage nearly $400 million in security assistance for Ukraine's fight against Russia and a coveted White House meeting for its president.
At the White House, Trump was defiant, denouncing the impeachment as a "witch hunt" and a "sham" that would come back to bite Democrats the next time their party held the presidency.
"You're trivializing impeachment when you use it for absolutely nothing other than trying for political gain," Trump said as he sat alongside President Mario Abdo of Paraguay in the Oval Office. "It's a sad thing for the country but a good thing for me politically."
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Over the past two weeks, the president declined to send his lawyers to participate in the hearings or offer a White House defense before the House.
Shortly after the Friday vote, Stephanie Grisham, the White house press secretary, issued a short statement saying the president was eagerly anticipating vindication in a Senate trial.
"This desperate charade of an impeachment inquiry in the House Judiciary Committee has reached its shameful end," she said. "The president looks forward to receiving in the Senate the fair treatment and due process which continues to be disgracefully denied to him by the House."
Trump's latest push-back on impeachment came a short time after Rudy Giuliani, the president's personal lawyer turned up at the White House. Giuliani, who has been involved in the Ukraine dealings at the heart of the impeachment inquiry, has been expected to meet with Trump, who requested a briefing from the former New York City mayor on his recent trip to Kyiv.
A White House spokesman did not immediately confirm whether Trump met with Giuliani. But Kellyanne Conway, senior counselor to the president, played down the visit, suggesting that Giuliani "may be going to the Christmas party" in the White House.
Giuliani's trip last week prompted concern from many White House officials, some of whom blame the lawyer for ensnaring Trump in the Ukraine affair. Giuliani told The Associated Press this week that he was preparing a report but would not reveal its contents.
CONTENTIOUS SESSION
The vote took place in the Ways and Means Committee Room the morning after a contentious 14-hour session in the Judiciary Committee that stretched past 10 p.m. CST Thursday as Democrats turned back a number of Republican efforts to gut or weaken the charges and members of both parties feuded over impeaching the president.
Republicans argued not only that Trump's conduct was not impeachable but also that his actions were entirely justified and explained by more innocent intentions.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, paused the session late Thursday before putting the articles to a final vote, saying he wanted members to take the time to "search their consciences" before the historic roll call.
On Friday morning, 40 members of the panel solemnly took their places on the wood-carved dais and voted without any further debate. The vote took fewer than 10 minutes.
"Today is a solemn and sad day," Nadler said in a brief statement afterward. "For the third time in a little over a century and half, the House Judiciary Committee has voted articles of impeachment against the president, for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The House will act expeditiously."
Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998 were both impeached on largely partisan votes, but were later acquitted by the Senate. Richard Nixon resigned in 1974 after the Judiciary Committee had approved charges against him and just before the House could take a final vote to impeach him.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic leaders have explicitly connected the Ukraine matter to Trump's embrace of Russian election assistance during the 2016 campaign, accusing the president of a broad and dangerous pattern of conduct. But they elected to focus their charges on the president's pressure campaign on Ukraine.
Republicans, who have defended Trump's conduct and accused Democrats' evidence of falling woefully short, declared Friday that Democrats had "tried to railroad the president."
"It's so unnecessary," said Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Ohio. "It was kind of preordained, I'm afraid, when this president got elected, because there were a group of people and they convinced a majority here on the Democratic side that this president needed to go."
Democratic leaders have indicated the full House will debate and vote on the articles next week, with final approval likely falling Wednesday, just before Congress recesses for Christmas and New Year's. They were lining up two more consequential votes to help soften the political liability for moderate Democrats in swing districts, including approval of Trump's new trade deal with Canada and Mexico, and a defense bill.
After the Judiciary Committee adjourned, the Rules Committee sent notice that it would meet Tuesday morning to make the final preparations for the House vote.
McCONNELL'S PREDICTION
If the full House votes to impeach Trump, the matter moves to the Senate, where Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has said there is "no chance" his chamber will vote to remove Trump from office.
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., issued a statement Friday noting that "[i]f articles of impeachment are sent to the Senate, every single senator will take an oath to render 'impartial justice.'"
"Making sure the Senate conducts a fair and honest trial that allows all the facts to come out is paramount," Schumer said.
His statement came a day after McConnell said in a Fox News interview that he is in "total coordination" with Trump's legal team ahead of an anticipated Senate trial.
In an interview late Thursday with Fox News host Sean Hannity, McConnell said there was "zero chance" the president would be removed from office, and promised "total coordination" with the White House and Trump's defense team.
"The case is so darn weak coming over from the House," he said. "We all know how it's going to end."
Those remarks angered House Democrats as they voted to advance the impeachment articles toward a Senate trial.
"I think it was pretty bad for who is essentially the foreman of the jury to announce the verdict," said Rep. Karen Bass, D-Calif., a Judiciary Committee member and potential impeachment manager. "The idea that he is working like that is pretty shameful."
Rep. Val Demings, D-Fla., went further, calling on McConnell to recuse himself from the Senate proceedings based on his Fox News remarks.
"He's working hand in hand with the White House, the president's attorney, and yet we are supposed to expect him to manage a fair and impartial impeachment inquiry?" she said. "They've screamed 'bias,' 'kangaroo court,' 'witch hunt' and everything else ... . When the Senate majority leader stands at the microphone and says I'm basically going to coordinate with the president's attorney, that scares me."
McConnell's office declined to comment on Friday.
Republican leaders in the upper chamber indicated Thursday, in the run-up to the vote, that they wanted a speedy trial and would work with Trump's defense team.
Asked on Friday if he wanted a short trial, Trump said, "I'll do whatever I want."
He added, "We did nothing wrong, so I'll do long or short."
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Republicans said an abbreviated trial with an all-but-predetermined outcome would be a fair bit of turnabout for Democrats, even as many of them are pushing for a lengthy trial featuring many of the witnesses Republicans wanted to hear from in the House.
"I think that's really rich coming from [the Democrats], who for three years have baked this thing in, where they ran a procedure with a predetermined outcome," said Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., a Judiciary Committee member and chairman of the House Freedom Caucus. "So I think that's interesting that they would make that criticism -- it's hypocritical."
The Constitution says the Senate has the sole power to try the impeachment charges, with all 100 senators serving as jurors. A vote of two-thirds of those senators present is required for a conviction.
Dozens of Republican senators have refrained from commenting on the substance of the House impeachment proceedings, telling reporters and constituents that they will be jurors in the upcoming trial and thus need to remain neutral.
Information for this article was contributed by Nicholas Fandos of The New York Times; by John Wagner, Colby Itkowitz and Mike DeBonis of The Washington Post; and by Jonathan Lemire of The Associated Press.
A Section on 12/14/2019