US President Donald Trump yesterday became the third US president in history to be impeached by Congress. The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives approved the impeachment process last night (local time), following a marathon eight-hour debate on the two charges brought against the president by his opponents: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Before Trump, only Andrew Johnson, in 1868, and Bill Clinton, in 1998, had been impeached. The two charges revolve around Trump's alleged pressure on his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, to reinstate Kiev's investigation into the son of Joe Biden, former vice president and the Democratic Party's leading presidential candidate. The charges against Trump are less robust than those presented at the outset of the investigation launched by the Democrats, who had repeatedly accused Trump of corruption and obstruction of justice. According to impeachment proponents, Trump threatened national security by withholding military aid to Ukraine for several weeks, presumably for blackmail purposes and to further his own reelection bid. Republicans have unanimously opposed this claim, which they maintain is contradicted both by the transcripts of the phone conversations between Trump and Zelensky and by the sole direct testimony of the facts heard by Congress in recent weeks. Republicans, as well as Trump himself, have also accused Democrats of openly pursuing impeachment against the president since before he took office. Trump accompanied the House debate with a series of tweets: "I did nothing wrong," the president wrote, accusing his political opponents of never having accepted the outcome of the 2016 election. Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reiterated her party's position: "The president has used the powers of his office to obtain improper political and personal benefit, to the detriment of national security," she declared. According to Pelosi, Democrats had to act to preserve "the integrity of our elections. Impeachment further deepens the deep divide within the political class and the US electorate, just two months before the start of the party primaries for the next presidential election. The final judgment on the charges against Trump will rest with the Senate, controlled by Republicans, who have sided solidly behind the president. The launch of the impeachment proceedings has deeply divided US public opinion, but for now, support for the incumbent president appears to have suffered no setbacks.
EDITORIAL TEAM
Choose the social channel you want to subscribe to