US President Donald Trump has been become only the third president in US history to be impeached.
The House of Representatives, which is the lower chamber of Congress in the United States, has voted to impeach the President following a debate today and proceedings over the last three months.
Donald Trump joins Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton in the history books as the only three US presidents to date to have been impeached. The Articles of Impeachment read ‘That Donald J. Trump, President of the United States, is impeached for high crimes and misdemeanours.’ Mr Trump is accused of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
Mr Trump has long insisted that he has done nothing wrong and in a tweet earlier today he said;
“Can you believe that I will be impeached today by the Radical Left, Do Nothing Democrats, AND I DID NOTHING WRONG! A terrible Thing. Read the Transcripts. This should never happen to another President again. Say a PRAYER!”
The impeachment comes following a telephone conversation between Mr Trump and the Ukranian President Volodymr Zelensiky in July 2019. Mr Trump is alleged to have asked Mr Zelenskiy to announce an investigation into his election rival Joe Biden in the hope of improving his reelection prospects. At the time, Ukraine was hoping to receive $400m in military aid from the US.
Writing before the impeachment, the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi said;
“Very sadly, the facts have made clear that the president abused his power for his own personal, political benefit and that he obstructed Congress.
“In America, no one is above the law.”
Thousands marched in support of impeachment on Tuesday evening, however, polls show an increase in the approval ratings of the President since the beginning of the impeachment proceedings.
Now that Mr Trump has been impeached, a trial on the charges is expected to be held in the Senate in early 2020. The Senate could remove Mr Trump from office, but this is unlikely due to the Republican majority in the Senate.
