It may have once seemed inevitable, yet still some political observers were not sure that we would eery actually get here: The Democratically-controlled House of Representatives have now introduced articles of impeachment against Donald Trump.
The articles, which come after months of hearings and investigations into the Trump presidency, will be narrow in scope in hopes that the Democrats can badger their Republican colleagues into submission.
The six House Democratic chairs who have led the investigations against the President this year unveiled the impeachment articles on Tuesday morning with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and they were formally introduced by House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler.
“Today, in service to our duty to the Constitution and to our country, the House Committee on the Judiciary is introducing two articles of impeachment, charging the President of the United States Donald J. Trump with committing high crimes and misdemeanors,” Nadler said.
Democrats charge that Trump abused his office by pressuring Ukraine to investigate his political rivals ahead of the 2020 election while withholding a White House meeting and $400 million in US security aid from Kiev. And they say that Trump then obstructed the investigation into his misconduct with a blanket blockade of subpoenas and refusing to allow key senior officials to testify before Congress.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has promised to deliver a swift acquittal of the President when the impeachment trial begins in the higher chamber of Congress and, given the Republican domination of the Senate, that shouldn’t be difficult.
The House anticipates passing these articles in merely a matter of days.
