WATCH LIVE: Judiciary Committee to vote on articles of impeachment
Planned votes on two articles of impeachment against President Trump were delayed late Thursday night by Rep. Jerry Nadler, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.
He asked members to consider how they want to vote and to reconvene at 10 a.m. today, Friday.
Ranking minority member Rep. Doug Collins and others protested that Nadler had upset the committee's plans without consulting them.
The Judiciary Committee had sparred for more than 12 hours Thursday ahead of expected votes.
If approved, the articles will head to a vote of the full House, likely by the end of next week. A vote to impeach would trigger a Senate trial, expected in January, over whether Trump keeps his office.
This month's spectacle is rare — it is only the fourth time articles of impeachment have been introduced. If the House votes to impeach Trump, that would represent only the third such instance in United States history.
This month's spectacle is rare — only the fourth time articles of impeachment have been introduced. If the House votes to impeach Trump, that would represent only the third such instance in United States history.
The House Judiciary Committee's Republicans did not go along quietly on Thursday and sought to delay the committee's actions with procedural motions and appeals to the chairman, Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., for a hearing of their own they believe they're owed under the rules.
Trump has called the proceedings a "witch hunt" and "failing." He dubbed it "impeachment lite" and "the lightest impeachment in the history of our country by far."
The Ukraine affair
The two articles Democrats introduced are for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The abuse of power charge centers on a pressure campaign carried out against Ukraine.
Multiple witnesses testified to an effort to get Ukraine to announce investigations into conspiracy theories about the 2016 campaign and into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, and his role on the board of a Ukrainian energy company.
House Judiciary Committee Opens Debate On Impeachment Articles
Wednesday's hearing notably was in prime-time television viewing. Polling has barely budged any views. By a 45% to 44% margin, Americans were split down the middle on whether Trump should be impeached and removed, according to the latest NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll.
That split was on full display Wednesday night. Democrats were firm in their view that the president tried to "cheat" in the 2020 election by soliciting foreign interference in U.S. elections — and should be impeached and removed from office.
"In pressuring Ukraine for a personal favor, President Trump both betrayed our national security and attempted to corrupt our elections," Nadler said.
Republicans, on the other hand, were dug in on their view that this impeachment is simply about politics, that Democrats have sought to impeach Trump since he was elected and that Trump committed no specific criminal act.
"We have been on this path since November 2016," Collins said. "The only thing that's changed is your desire to impeach the president when you became the majority."
