US Congress (archive)

  • Impeachment, the precedents of US history
  • Thousands in the streets for Trump's impeachment. Today 6 hours of debate before the vote
  • Trump: unfair impeachment, democratic party of hate. McConnell: I will coordinate with the White House
  • Impeachment Trump, go-ahead by the Chamber Commission
  • Abuse of power and obstruction of Congress: these are the two charges against Trump for impeachment

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December 18, 2019The historic session in the House of Representatives has begun to vote for the impeachment request by President Donald Trump, accused of abuse of power and obstruction of justice. As a first step, the deputies will have to vote on the procedural rules of the debate, which provide for a six-hour discussion, to be divided equally between democratic and republican speakers. Once approved, the debate will begin, after which the two articles of the impeachment will be voted.

The majority threshold for each vote will be 216 votes, due to the absence of two deputies. A first Republican attempt to update the entire procedure was immediately rejected by the majority of the deputies.

This is the program of the Chamber's work day, according to American media: from 9.30am (3.30pm in Italy) the session is in progress. At about 11.30 am (5.30 pm) the first votes on the rules to follow. The actual debate can then begin; the final vote on the two articles will arrive between 7 pm and 8 pm in Washington (between one and two in the morning in Italy).

Pelosi: the end of the Republic is in danger
The speaker of the Chamber, the Democrat Nancy Pelosi, has sounded the alarm, claiming that we must go ahead with the impeachment procedure against the American president Donald Trump, otherwise we risk ending up in the hands of a president-king. "If we allow a president - to any president, regardless of who he or she is - to continue on this path, we can say goodbye to the Republic and welcome the president-king," Pelosi said in an interview re-launched by Politic.

And President Trump, as usual, responds with a flurry of tweets in which he defines Pelosi 'the worst Speaker in the history of the Chamber'.

Will go down in history as worst Speaker. Already thrown out once! https://t.co/Q6N2EVlp9j

- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) 18 December 2019

And he reiterates that he did nothing wrong, asking to pray for him.

Can you believe that I will be impeached today by the Radical Left, Do Nothing Democrats, AND I DID NOTHING WRONG! A terrible Thing. Read the Transcripts. This should never happen to another President again. Say a PRAYER!

- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) 18 December 2019

What the Constitution provides
In the event that the House, with a simple majority (half plus one) votes in favor of impeachment, it is up to the US Senate to decide whether to start the process to determine whether the president should be removed. The vote of two-thirds of the senators is needed, 67 out of 100.

The power of the Congress to remove the president from the White House foreseen by the Constitution, namely "impeachment", "indictment", concerns the crimes of treason, corruption, "high crimes and violations". The impeachment concerns every high federal office, including the president of the United States. But no president has ever had to leave office, even though Richard Nixon resigned before his indictment was voted.

Also considering the work of the commissions, that of Donald Trump is the 21st case in American history in 222 years.