White House confident Senate’ll restore order as Democrats impeach Trump

 

• Democrats have branded themselves with an eternal mark of shame – Trump

 

The White House has hit back at lawmakers after President Donald Trump was impeached, slamming the “illegitimate articles of impeachment” and voicing confidence the president would be acquitted in the Senate.

“Democrats have chosen to proceed on this partisan basis in spite of the fact that the President did absolutely nothing wrong,” spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham said in a statement, calling the votes in the House of Representatives an “unconstitutional travesty”.

Grisham said that there were no fact witnesses in the hearing and alleged bias by the Democrats.

“The President is confident the Senate will restore regular order, fairness, and due process, all of which were ignored in the House proceedings.

“He is prepared for the next steps and confident that he will be fully exonerated,” the statement said, referring to the upcoming trial in the upper chamber.

READ: Trump’s tweet propels Nigerian artist into global limelight

Donald Trump became the third sitting president in U.S. history to be impeached, as the House of Representatives approved on Wednesday the two articles of impeachment against him: that he abused the power of his office by pressuring Ukraine to interfere in the 2020 election on his behalf, and that he obstructed Congress in its inquiry.

The Democrats dominated House approved the first article of impeachment, on abuse of power, by a vote of 230 to 197 at 8:34 p.m. after a daylong debate. Of the 233 Democrats, 228 voted in favor, along with the House’s one Independent. Two Democrats opposed the measure. No Republicans voted in favor.

Eighteen minutes later, the second article, charging obstruction of Congress, passed by a vote of 229 to 198 with three Democrats voting no, and again no Republicans in favor.

One Democrat voted “present” on each article.

Trump came to the stage for a rally in Battle Creek, Michigan, just as the vote was being called and told the crowd, “It doesn’t really feel like we’re being impeached. The country is doing better than ever before. We did nothing wrong. And we have tremendous support in the Republican Party.”

Moments after the second article was approved, Trump called his impeachment “illegal, unconstitutional and partisan.” Democrats, he said, “are declaring their deep hatred and disdain for the American voter.”

Democrats “have branded themselves with an eternal mark of shame,” he said.