House Judiciary Committee Approves Articles Of Impeachment Against President Trump

In response to the House Judiciary's approval of the two articles of impeachment against him, President Trump accused them of "trivializing impeachment."

The Hill gave more details on the articles of impeachment approval:

Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee approved two articles of impeachment Friday that charge President Trump with high crimes and misdemeanors, setting up a historic House vote next week that all but guarantees Trump will be just the third president to be impeached in U.S. history.

The articles, which charge Trump with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, were passed out of the committee along strict party lines, with 23 Democrats voting to send the measures to the full House, which is expected to approve them next week. One Democrat, Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), was absent after undergoing an unexpected medical procedure earlier in the week. 

All 17 panel Republicans, meanwhile, united against both articles, arguing that the charges rested on thin evidence and that Democrats proceeding with their rapid impeachment push will set a dangerous precedent in the years ahead.

The votes come two days after the panel began its debate and the morning after Democrats enraged Republicans by abruptly canceling an expected vote that would have taken place very late Thursday night or early Friday morning. 

“That was the most egregious violation of trust between a committee chairman and ranking member I think I’ve ever seen,” said Rep. Doug Collins (Ga.), the top Republican on Judiciary, who said “there was no discussion” about the change of plans.

“We thought we were going to do votes tonight," said Collins, who called the impeachment markups a “kangaroo court" and argued that Democrats wanted more television time for the proceedings. 

Democrats signaled that they wanted to prevent Republicans from arguing they had approved the articles of impeachment in the dead of night and when no Americans were watching. 

“We felt like they wanted us to pass this in the middle of the night, so we felt the American people deserved to see this historic vote. And it should be passed in the daylight and not in the middle of the night,” a Democratic aide said.

The partisan vote came after more than 14 hours of feisty debate on Thursday over a series of Republican amendments seeking to scrub Democrats’ impeachment articles that raised allegations about Trump’s contacts with Ukraine.In comparison to that slog, Friday's votes were lightening fast: Nadler introduced them, one by one, shortly after 10 a.m., and he gaveled the hearing closed less than 10 minutes later. Almost no one spoke, except to cast their yea or nay vote.

Afterwards, Democrats hailed the development as a case of Congress protecting the country from an inherently corrupt president who had put his personal political interests above those of national security.

"It'll be remembered as a day that certain people stood up for the Constitution and the founding fathers," said Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.).

Republicans were equally as passionate that Trump, rather than doing the abusing, had been abused. They accused the Democrats of rushing the process — before gathering all the facts and hearing from the first-hand players — to fit a pre-conceived conclusion that Trump should be removed.

"America needs to hear from the witnesses," said Rep. Louis Gohmert (R-Texas), referring to the process as "a kangaroo court."

"They don't have the right to abuse the process and this was a total abuse of process."

The White House dismissed Friday's committee vote, saying Trump looks forward to a "fair" trial in the GOP-controlled Senate.

ABC News has more to say on President Trump's response to the vote:

Just about an hour after the House Judiciary Committee Friday approved two articles of impeachment against him, President Donald Trump accused them of "trivializing" the constitutional process for political gain.

Before a meeting with Paraguay's president at the White House, Trump told reporters he had been working on a China trade deal but “got to see enough of it.”

“You’re trivializing impeachment, and I tell you what, someday they’ll be a Democrat president and they’ll be a Republican House, and I suspect they’re going to remember it. Because when you do -- when you use impeachment for absolutely nothing other than to try and get political gain.”

"I think it's a horrible thing to be using the tool of impeachment, which is supposed to be used in an emergency and, it would seem, many, many, many years apart – to be using this for a perfect phone call where the president of that country said there was no pressure whatsoever, didn't even know what we were talking about, it was perfect," he said, referring to his July 25 phone call in which he pressured Ukraine's president to investigate his political rivals.

Democrats accuse him of "abuse of power" for doing so and "obstruction of Congress: for blocking their efforts to find out what happened.

“To use the power of impeachment on this nonsense is an embarrassment to this country,” Trump said.

Asked if he preferred a short or long Senate trial – if impeachment made it to that body – Trump praised GOP Sens. Lindsey Graham and Mitch McConnell’s views that a shorter trial is preferable, saying both he'd do "whatever I want' and "whatever they want."