House Democrats introduce articles of impeachment against Trump

House Democrats have announced they will proceed with articles of impeachment against President Trump.

In a Tuesday news conference, Judiciary Chair Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) announced his committee was introducing two articles of impeachment against Trump, one for abuse of power and one for obstructing Congress. "We do not take this decision lightly," Nadler said, but continued to say that Trump continually "endangers the Constitution, he endangers our democracy, and he endangers our national security," forcing the Democrats to act.

The six committee chairs leading the impeachment probe all joined House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on what she called "this solemn day," and she recalled the late Oversight Chair Elijah Cummings' contributions to the impeachment investigation. Then, Nadler laid out the charges against Trump, which notably didn't include the "bribery" allegation Democrats had been using in weeks before.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Intelligence Chair Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) then explained Trump's "simple and terrible" acts, both of which stemmed from attempt to pressure Ukraine to investigate his political rivals. "In so doing he undermined our national security and jeopardized the integrity of our next election," Schiff said, adding that criticisms of the impeachment inquiry as rushed amount to one question: "Why don't you just let him cheat in one more election?"

The House will vote on advancing the articles as early as Wednesday, and with a Democratic majority, it's very likely to pass. The Senate Judiciary Committee will then vote on sending the articles to the whole Senate for a trial. The Senate seems well aware of this possibility, and has left its January calendar completely blank in anticipation.