House impeaches Donald Trump; president’s fate now in Senate’s hands

After a long, historic day of partisan and at times passionate arguments, the U.S. House of Representatives, as expected, voted to impeach President Donald Trump on Wednesday evening.

The Democratic-controlled House passed two articles of impeachment, one for Trump abusing his power by pressuring Ukraine to investigate political rivals and the other for obstructing Congress during an investigation of the allegations.

The vote was 230-197 on the first article, with one present vote. Two Democrats, including New Jersey’s Jeff Van Drew, who has announced plans to join the GOP, voted no, along with every Republican.

A third Democrat joined the no column on the second vote, which passed 229-198 with one present vote.

The fate of the 45th American president, and third to be impeached, moves into the hands of the Republican-controlled Senate, which is expected to acquit him during a trial in January. A two-thirds vote would be needed to convict Trump and remove him from office.

Ahead of the Wednesday’s vote, Speaker Nancy Pelosi invoked the Pledge of Allegiance and the Preamble to the Constitution in arguing that the Founders’ vision for a republic was threatened by Trump’s actions.

“Today we are here to defend democracy for the people,” she said to applause from Democrats in the House chamber.

Trump, tweeting from the White House, used all capital letters and exclamation points to register his outrage: “SUCH ATROCIOUS LIES BY THE RADICAL LEFT, DO NOTHING DEMOCRATS. THIS IS AN ASSAULT ON AMERICA, AND AN ASSAULT ON THE REPUBLICAN PARTY!!!!”

This is a developing story. Click here for the latest information and more details.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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