WASHINGTON — Louisiana's congressmen voted along party lines Wednesday to impeach President Donald Trump; the state's single Democratic representative joined other representatives voting yes on the two articles of impeachment.
Democrat Cedric Richmond, who represents New Orleans and part of Baton Rouge, voted to impeach Trump for alleged abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
Republican Reps. Ralph Abraham, Steve Scalise, Clay Higgins, Garret Graves and Mike Johnson voted against impeaching the president.
The historic vote was largely made along party lines, with a handful Democrats defecting to vote no on impeachment. Analysts predicted a small number of Democrats would vote no because they represent formerly Republican districts that could be vulnerable in 2020.
Voting was split in two, with separate votes for both articles brought against the president.
As debate proceeded on Wednesday, Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi insisted Congress must "defend democracy" by evicting him from the White House.
What Louisiana congressmen said
The impeachment vote followed six hours of debate on the House floor. Several Louisiana Republicans used their speaking time to critique the motives and process of the impeachment process.
"We don't face this horror because the Democrats have all of a sudden become constitutionalists," said Rep. Clay Higgins (R-Lafayette). "We will never surrender our nation to career establishment D.C. politicians and bureaucrats ... Our republic shall survive this threat from within. American patriots will prevail."
Rep. Mike Johnson (R-Shreveport) said the impeachment vote would cause long-lasting damage to the U.S. democracy because of its partisan nature.
"There has never been a single-party, fraudulent impeachment process like the one being used today," Johnson said. "Our Democrat colleagues have weaponized the impeachment provision of the Constitution to nullify the votes of 63 million Americans who elected President Donald J. Trump."
Richmond defended his decision to vote for impeachment, saying it was made out of patriotism.
"I have heard Republicans say 'why are we rushing to judgment?' This is not a rush to judgment. It is a rush to justice, and we must not delay," Richmond said. "Corruption is corrosive. It eats away like acid, and the more time we wait, the more time we allow for this president to do irreparable harm to our country and our democracy."
What are the articles of impeachment
The two articles of impeachment against Trump are for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
The case for both articles was laid out in a nine-page document released by House Democrats after several months of investigation, including weeks of closed-door and open hearing testimony from officials dealing with Ukraine.
Abuse of Power
The first charge comes from a conversation Trump had with Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which was flagged by a whistleblower as being possible improper.
The revelation of the whistleblower complaint and subsequent call summary released by the White House describing the interaction quickly drew the attention of lawmakers.
The call and other communications between top officials and Ukranian leaders were related to conditions Trump's White House was imposing on a potential visit to the White House and millions of dollars in military aid.
The military aid to help Ukranian troops fight Russian-backed separatists was approved by Congress, but held up by the Trump administration until shortly after the House began a formal investigation into the whistleblower's complaint.
The Trump administration has never publicly said why the aid was withheld, but Democrats suspect it was being used as a bargaining chip to convince Ukranian officials to announce an investigation into Hunter Biden, the son of Trump's 2020 rival Joe Biden.
Some testimony during the public impeachment hearings corroborates their suspicion, but Trump has repeatedly said he was trying to root out corruption in Ukraine, not hurt a political opponent ahead of the 2020 election.
Obstruction of Congress
The second charge against Trump is simpler than the first, and deals with his actions during the House's investigation of the Ukraine affair.
Congress, as the highest legislative body in the country, has the power to issue subpoenas for anybody for any reason.
But during the investigation, Trump ordered many top officials to ignore the congressional subpoenas, and refused to turn over documents congressional investigators subpoenaed.
Democrats accused Trump of preventing them from doing their congressionally-mandated job. In the impeachment resolution, they denounced the executive branch's defiance.
"In the history of the Republic, no President has ever ordered the complete defiance of an impeachment inquiry or sought to obstruct and impede so comprehensively the ability of the House of Representatives to investigate 'High Crimes and Misdemeanors,'" the resolution reads.
What is impeachment
Trump is the third U.S. President to be formally impeached, following Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton. Richard Nixon resigned before the impeachment process began.
Impeachment itself is a two-step process.
From the House of Representatives...
The House of Representatives begins the process. House leaders can determine the nature of an impeachment process on a case-by-case basis because the constitution is vague on the specifics of the process.
In Trump's case, the House did not have a special counsel investigation completed (Robert Mueller's report was a special counsel investigation, but was not related to Ukraine) and began their own investigation process, with closed-door testimony in front of the House Intelligence Committee which drew criticism from Republicans and then public hearings televised to the public.
After the hearings, the House Judiciary Committee debated the findings of the Intelligence Committee and drafted articles of impeachment against Trump. After a committee vote passed the articles, they went to the full House for approval.
After the largely party-line vote, the articles are now on their way to the Senate for trial.
...to the Senate
The Republican-controlled U.S. Senate is still debating how the trial will proceed, because Senate leaders have complete control over how the proceedings take place, in the same way as the House controls the impeachment step.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) has said he will coordinate the trial with the White House.
Chief Supreme Court Justice John Roberts will preside over the trial, where senators will act as jury members.
Sen. John Kennedy (R-Louisiana) said in a news conference ahead of the House vote Wednesday he would be an impartial juror but predicted Trump would be acquitted along party lines.
Louisiana's other Senator, Republican Bill Cassidy, said in a statement Wednesday that Democrats' hatred of the president was driving the impeachment.
“I will be a juror and will take this seriously, but this impeachment is motivated by Democrats’ hatred of Donald Trump, not justice," Cassidy said. "Impeachment is sucking up all the time that could be used for positive things. We need to get back to the kitchen table issues that actually affect Louisiana families.”
After hearing evidence, senators will be asked to vote whether to remove Trump from office for the offenses outlined in the articles of impeachment. Two-thirds of the Senate must vote to remove Trump from office for the removal process to begin.
No president has ever been removed from office this way, and analysts say it is extremely unlikely Trump will be the first.
Republicans control 53 seats in the Senate, and 67 senators are needed to remove Trump, meaning at least 20 senators would need to defect in order to proceed.
The impeachment trial is expected to begin sometime in January.
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