The House Judiciary Committee on Friday voted along party lines to send two articles of impeachment to the House floor for a full vote next week, marking a major step forward in the pursuit of holding President Donald Trump accountable for his alleged misbehavior with respect to Ukraine and the 2020 election.
“Mine isn’t a vote against any single person,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), who voted for both articles. “It is a vote for We, the People.”
Committee chair Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) bemoaned the lack of cooperation from the White House on the probe in comments after the vote to reporters but said that the actions of the president left Congress no choice.
“If the president can first abuse his power and then stonewall all congressional requests for information, Congress cannot fulfill its duty to act as a check and balance against the Executive,” said Nadler, “and the president becomes a dictator.”
The articles are based on Trump’s pressuring, via the withholding of military aid, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to publicly announce his country’s justice system was investigating Hunter Biden, son of former Vice President Joe Biden, a frontrunner for the Democratic Party’s 2020 presidential nomination. The scheme was exposed by a whistleblower in September.
The Judiciary Committee sent charges of obstruction of justice and abuse of power to the full chamber on a 23-17 vote.
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