Donald Trump has been impeached by the US House of Representatives
President Donald Trump was impeached for abuse of power in a historic vote in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, setting up a Senate trial on removing him from office after three turbulent years, news agency AFP reported.
While the House impeached Trump for abuse of power by a 230-197 vote, it voted 230 to 197 against him for obstruction of Congress, making him the third occupant of the White House in American history to be impeached.
Democrats said they had "no choice" but to formally charge the Republican president, whose impeachment along stark party lines places an indelible stain on his record while driving a spike ever deeper into the US political divide. "What is at risk here is the very idea of America," said Adam Schiff, the lawmaker who headed the impeachment inquiry, ahead of the vote. Trump will now stand trial in the Senate, where his Republicans hold a solid majority and are expected to exonerate him.
Trump will now face a trial in the Senate, where Republicans have a majority and removal from office is unlikely.
Here are the live updates of Donald Trump's impeachment in US House of Representatives:
Although national polls show consistently that well over half the country disapproves of Trump, he's counting on his core base to win the key states in the electoral college system -- like Michigan.
If convicted Trump will be removed from office, an unprecedented outcome but one which looks like a highly unlikely conclusion to what has increasingly become a partisan, political, rather than criminal, process.
Trump is expected to stand trial in the Republican-led Senate beginning in early January.
Democrats "Consumed With Hatred", Says Trump
US President Donald Trump railed against a Democratic Party "consumed with hatred" after he was impeached Wednesday for abuse of power and obstructing Congress, news agency AFP reported.
"While we're creating jobs and fighting for Michigan, the radical Left in Congress is consumed with envy and hatred and rage, you see what's going on," the Republican leader seethed at campaign rally in the state.
"These people are crazy."
Trump said the Democratic Party, which controls the House of Representatives where the votes took place, was "trying to nullify the ballots of tens of millions of patriotic Americans."
Abuse of power, obstruction of Congress: The Charges faced by Trump
While the House impeached Trump for abuse of power by a 230-197 vote, it voted 230 to 197 against him for obstruction of Congress, making him the third occupant of the White House in American history to be impeached.
Trump will now face a trial in the Senate, where Republicans have a majority and removal from office is unlikely.
Trump was facing two articles of impeachment -- for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress -- and both articles were passed in the Democratic-majority House.