US President Donald Trump is only the third president in US history to be impeached.Lawmakers in the US House of Representatives voted to impeach President Donald Trump this week, after three months of investigations.
Democrat lawmakers in the House had brought two articles against Trump. The first accused him of asking a foreign government to interfere in US elections. It stems from the fact that Trump asked Ukraine’s president to investigate Democrat Joe Biden, who is a top candidate for the 2020 elections. The second accused Trump of refusing to cooperate with the initial impeachment proceedings.
US President Donald Trump impeached; faces trial to determine if he will remain in office
In the lead-up to the vote on Wednesday, Democrats urged Republicans in the House to side with them and vote in favour of impeaching Trump, saying that he posed a “clear and present danger”.
The night before the vote, Trump sent an angry, six-page letter to House speaker Nancy Pelosi, accusing Democrats of not giving him the right to give evidence during the impeachment investigations. In fact, Trump was given the chance to provide evidence, but declined.
As the House contains more Democrat lawmakers than Republicans, there was always a high chance it would vote to pass the articles.
However, now the Senate – the US government’s other voting chamber – must decide whether to remove Trump from office, and it is very unlikely that it will, as it is controlled by Republican lawmakers, who will almost certainly stand by their leader.
Rather, it will be up to the public to decide Trump’s fate, with the 2020 presidential elections just around the corner.