Photo taken on Dec. 4, 2019 shows the Capitol Hill in Washington D.C., the United States. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)
U.S. House Judiciary Committee has passed two articles of impeachment, accusing President Donald Trump of abusing power and obstruction of Congress.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 13 (Xinhua) -- After a two-day marathon debate, the U.S. Democrat-led House Judiciary Committee on Friday passed both articles of impeachment, accusing President Donald Trump of abusing power and obstruction of Congress.
Along partisan lines, the committee eventually voted separately on each of the articles.
Democrats outnumbered Republicans on the panel 24 to 17, with 23 Democrats voting to send the measures to the full House. One Democrat, Ted Lieu from California, was absent after undergoing an unexpected medical procedure earlier in the week.
All 17 panel Republicans voted no, arguing that the evidence is thin and weak. They also criticized Democrats were pushing a rapid-paced impeachment which will set a dangerous precedent.
The articles are widely expected to get a full House vote as quickly as next week, days before Christmas. Trump will be impeached if the House approves any of the two articles by a simple majority vote.
Trump is the fourth U.S. president in American history to face impeachment. If he were impeached, he would be the third U.S. president to face a trial in the Senate.
Trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, slamming the Democrats' effort as a "witch hunt" and hoax.
"All of our presidents would be impeached under this Rogue House of Democrat Leadership," Trump said on Twitter before the vote on Friday morning.
"The Republican Party is more united now than at any time in its history - by far!" the president said in a series of tweets. "The Do Nothing Democrats have become the Party of lies and deception!"
"The central issue of this impeachment is the corruption of our institutions that safeguard democracy by our president," House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, a Democrat from New York, said during the debate.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested at her weekly press conference on Thursday that Democrats would have the enough votes to pass the impeachment articles without Republican support.
The House Judiciary Committee released a report last week explaining the constitutional grounds for the impeachment, accusing Trump of abusing his office by pressuring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky into launching investigations that could hurt Trump's potential Democratic rival Joe Biden and thus benefit the president's reelection campaign during the 2020 U.S. elections.
The White House has refused to participate in the impeachment proceeding initiated by Pelosi in late September, accusing Democrats of an unfair process. ■
