What you need to know about a historic day.
Welcome back to the Impeachment Briefing. Today was historic: President Trump was impeached. |
What happened on the House floor |
- The House voted this evening to impeach President Trump over his campaign to pressure Ukraine to investigate a political rival, making him just the third president in American history to be charged with “high crimes and misdemeanors.”
- On the first article, for the charge of abuse of power, the vote was split almost entirely along party lines, 230 to 197. Two Democrats sided with Republicans: Collin Peterson and Jeff Van Drew, who has indicated that he plans to switch parties and join the Republicans. Justin Amash, who recently left the Republican Party to become independent, voted for the article, and Tulsi Gabbard, who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination, voted “present.”
- On the second article, concerning obstruction of Congress, the vote was 229 to 198. Members voted the same way as in the first vote, except Jared Golden, Democrat of Maine, who voted “no.” (Here’s how every member of the House voted.)
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- The votes came after eight hours of debate in the House. Lawmakers made a barrage of one- to two-minute speeches, with each side laying out a highlight reel of the arguments they have been making for weeks.
- Democrats described it as a solemn day, saying they saw it as their duty to protect the Constitution and hold the president accountable. “Our founders’ vision of a republic is under threat from actions from the White House,” said Speaker Nancy Pelosi. “If we do not act now, we would be derelict in our duty. It is tragic that the president’s reckless actions make impeachment necessary. He gave us no choice.”
- Republicans argued that Democrats have been hellbent on impeaching Mr. Trump since he first took office, with the Ukraine affair merely a convenient scandal to reach that end. “This day is about one thing and one thing only: They hate this president,” said Representative Chris Stewart of Utah. “They hate those of us who voted for him. They think we are stupid. They think we made a mistake.”
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- Mr. Trump took the stage at a campaign rally tonight in Battle Creek, Mich., just minutes before he was impeached, an extraordinary scene where thousands of supporters responded to the votes in real time as Mr. Trump railed against House Democrats.
- During the day Mr. Trump sent more than 45 tweets defending himself and amplifying messages from supporters. “SUCH ATROCIOUS LIES BY THE RADICAL LEFT, DO NOTHING DEMOCRATS,” he said in one tweet. “THIS IS AN ASSAULT ON AMERICA, AND AN ASSAULT ON THE REPUBLICAN PARTY!!!!”
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 | | Noah Weiland |
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I’m writing the Impeachment Briefing today from snowy, frigid Battle Creek, a town of around 50,000 and the epicenter of American cereal production, where the scent of Rice Krispies and Raisin Bran sometimes wafts through the air. Tonight it was a hive of pro-Trump, anti-impeachment fervor, the only time in American history when a president held a campaign rally the night of his impeachment. |
Thousands of Trump supporters wrapped in scarves and parkas lined up early this morning, some of them waving flags featuring Mr. Trump holding an assault rifle, while a large screen nearby pumped out videos the Trump campaign made with the president’s daughter-in-law, Lara. Unofficial vendors sold goods with “Trump 2020: No More,” with an expletive at the end. |
As this newsletter is being sent out, Mr. Trump is standing onstage about a hundred feet in front of me, dozens of other journalists and more than 6,000 cheering supporters. He took the stage around 17 minutes before his impeachment was finalized, leading to a surreal moment in the arena. About an hour in, Mr. Trump read off the vote counts, boasting about how unified Republicans were. |
“The Republican Party has never been so affronted, but they’ve never been so united,” he said.” |
 | | Noah Weiland |
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Battle Creek, in between liberal strongholds like Kalamazoo and East Lansing, is in some ways the perfect image of Mr. Trump’s political vulnerability in 2020. It’s the industrial hub of a county that went for Mr. Trump in 2016, but went twice for President Barack Obama. |
Many Trump supporters I talked to this afternoon borrowed the president’s anti-impeachment vocabulary, which we’ve become familiar with in the past few weeks as the final vote approached. |
“They don’t have any direct evidence,” said Karen Paul, a Flint resident. “It’s all hearsay. If anybody is affecting the 2020 election, it’s them.” |
“It’s nothing but a witch hunt in the House,” said Maureen Sloan, a resident of Dexter, Mich. |
“Good god, just look at the transcript,” Charles Crookston said. |
Near the beginning of his speech tonight, Mr. Trump seemed to wonder in bemusement at his fate. |
“It doesn’t really feel like we’re being impeached,” he said, to roars. |
- The House is expected to vote tonight to empower Ms. Pelosi to name impeachment managers — House lawmakers who act much like prosecutors and present findings of the impeachment inquiry to the Senate. We’re likely to learn the managers’ identities in the coming days.
- After this week, Congress will go on a two-week break for the holidays, returning the week of Jan. 6.
- The Senate is expected to begin its trial after its members return, where they have the power to convict the president with a two-thirds majority — thus removing him from office — or acquit him.
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- Today’s vote was the product of Ms. Pelosi’s momentous decision to open an impeachment inquiry. My colleague Sheryl Gay Stolberg writes that Ms. Pelosi has now staked out her legacy as the “maestro of the unruly Democratic orchestra that crescendoed on Wednesday to an impeachment vote she sought mightily to avoid.”
- The battle over impeachment is playing out from block to block, house to house and even across dinner tables. Kathryn Whitaker, a Democratic candidate for the State Senate in South Carolina, supports impeaching Mr. Trump. But her husband of 15 years is a Republican who thinks impeachment is “a huge waste of time.”
- In our Opinion pages, Senator Kamala Harris writes that the Republican Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, “appears more interested in covering up the president’s misconduct than in pursuing truth and fairness.’
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