Please vote to impeach Trump, Jerry Nadler pleads with Republicans

Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler implored Republican members to vote for impeachment as he laid out a case against President Trump during the first primetime impeachment hearing. 

‘I hope every member of this Committee will withstand the political pressures of the moment,’ Nadler begged. ‘I hope that we are able to work together to hold this President – or any President – accountable for breaking his most basic obligations to the country and to its citizens.’ 

Nadler said he hoped that members wouldn’t try to ‘justify behavior that we know in our heart is wrong.’   

‘And while you think about that choice, please keep in mind that – one way or the other – President Trump will not be president forever,’ Nadler continued. ‘When his time has passed, when his grip on our politics is gone, when our country returns, as surely it will, to calmer times and stronger leadership, history will look back on our actions here today.’ 

‘How would you be remembered?’ Nadler asked. 

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (left) and Republican ranking member Doug Collins (right) delivered remarks at the beginning of Wednesday night’s impeachment hearing 

Rep. Jerry Nadler (left) argued for impeachment, Rep. Doug Collins (right) argued against it

Rep. Jerry Nadler (left) argued for impeachment, Rep. Doug Collins (right) argued against it 

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler chaired an impeachment hearing Wednesday night to allow every member of the Judiciary Committee to give an opening statement

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler chaired an impeachment hearing Wednesday night to allow every member of the Judiciary Committee to give an opening statement 

Rep. Doug Collins, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, stares into space in the opening moments of Wednesday night's impeachment hearing

Rep. Doug Collins, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, stares into space in the opening moments of Wednesday night’s impeachment hearing

A staff member chats with Republican Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner before Wednesday night's House Judiciary Committee impeachment hearing

A staff member chats with Republican Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner before Wednesday night’s House Judiciary Committee impeachment hearing 

Members of the House Judiciary Committee gathered at the Longworth House Office Building Wednesday night. The Republicans in the room again brought props

Members of the House Judiciary Committee gathered at the Longworth House Office Building Wednesday night. The Republicans in the room again brought props 

The New York Democrat said that with a ‘heavy heart’ he supported the president’s impeachment.  

Nadler was the first of 40 lawmakers who will spend Wednesday night delivering opening statements as part of the Judiciary Committee’s markup session of the two articles of impeachment Democratic leadership signed off on Tuesday. 

The opening statements are expected to take nearly four hours Wednesday night. 

Rep. Doug Collins, Nadler’s Republican counterpart, called bull when he made his opening remarks. 

‘We have spent all year in this committee trying to impeach this president,’ Collins said. 

He said it was as much of a surprise as the holiday season. 

‘It doesn’t jump up and sneak up on you when you’ve been expecting it the whole time!’ Collins said. 

Rep. Louie Gohmert was operating at a louder decibel level than his colleagues. During his five minutes, he got briefly emotional and the Texas Republican also shouted. 

He charged Democrats for not wanting to bring in ‘fact witnesses’ while demanding Vice President Joe Biden and a laundry list of other officials needed to testify.  

Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, a Republican from Wisconsin, characterized the Democrats’ case as weak.  

‘This bar is so low that what is happening is that a future president can be impeached for any disagreement when the presidency and the House of Representatives are controlled by different parties,’ he argued during his term. 

There are 41 Judiciary Committee members, but Rep. Ted Lieu, a California Democrats, is absent due to illness. 

On Wednesday night, the Republicans brought new signs – including one that labeled the Democratic committee chairs the ‘Coastal Impeachment Squad’ since they’re from either California or New York. 

There was also a sign depicting a Clinton impeachment-era quote, where the New York Democrat argued impeachment should never be a narrowly voted, partisan effort.  

Republicans have argued Democrats are trying to overturn the 2016 election while Democrats allege that the president with held nearly $400 million in aid to the Ukraine in order to pressure that country to investigate the Bidens and an unproven conspiracy theory that it was the Ukraine – and not Russia – that interfered in the 2016 election.

Lawmakers on the committee will return Thursday morning for the business at hand – offering amendments to the two articles of impeachment: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

Any member of the committee can offer amendments. 

And there are many ways to drag the process out – lawmakers can demand their amendments be read aloud (a process typically waved by a motion known as unanimous consent) and any lawmaker can object to any amendment.

Such moves would also have to be voted upon and any lawmaker can demand a roll call vote – another time consuming process. 

Then the amendments themselves will be debated and given a final vote of approval or disapproval.

Given the partisan nature of impeachment the markup is expected to go long. The markup of Bill Clinton’s articles of impeachment took three days.    

After lawmakers on the Judiciary Committee finish their work, the articles of impeachment go to the Rules Committee, which sets the rules governing the debate on the House floor about the measure.

Then the articles go to the full House. 

Democrats are on track to hold a vote in the full House next week – before they depart for the year – and then the approved articles will go to the Senate for trial. 

In the trial, senators would act as jurors and certain House members would act as prosecutors, or impeachment managers. The chief justice of the Supreme Court presides. 

A vote to convict the president requires a two-thirds vote in the upper chamber, where Republicans hold 53 out of 100 seats. 

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Tuesday that he doesn’t expect that to happen.

‘I said I would be totally surprised if there are 67 senators who want to impeach the president,’ he said. 

He also said the Senate would not take up an impeachment trial until the chamber returns in January. 

Nancy Pelosi and her Democrats charged Trump with high crimes and misdemeanors on Tuesday.  

Democrats made their pronouncement early Tuesday morning the Capitol – a group of impeachment managers joining the speaker to stand before a portrait of George Washington and four American flags to make their case against the president. 

‘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,’ said House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler. 

‘We must be clear: no one, not even the president, is above the law,’ he said.

Nadler also released the nine-page text of the formal articles outlining the charges.

‘President Trump abused the powers of the presidency by ignoring and injuring national security and other vital national interests to obtain an improper personal political benefit. He has also betrayed the nation by abusing his high office to enlist a foreign power in corrupting Democratic elections,’ reads the first charge.

‘In the history of the Republic, no president has ever ordered the complete defiance of an impeachment inquiry or sought to obstruct and impede so comprehensively the ability of the House of Representatives to investigate ‘high crimes and misdemeanors,” reads the second. 

Each crime comes with a final note on the formal impeachment accusation: ‘Wherefore President Trump, by such conduct, has demonstrated that he will remain a threat to national security and the Constitution if allowed to remain in office, and has acted in a manner grossly incompatible with self-governance and the rule of law. President Trump thus warrants impeachment and trial, removal from office and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust or profit under the United States.’

That’s because each article of impeachment would have to be voted on separately, requiring the punishment to be spelled out for each.

Additionally, the punishment outlined in the resolution forbids Trump from ever holding elective office again – a requirement that requires a separate vote in the Senate. 

Trump on Tuesday slammed the impeachment charges against him as ‘very weak’ and claimed Republicans are united with him.

‘The Republicans have started to gather and this is a witch hunt and is a terrible thing but even the Democrats couldn’t find very much because they put up new articles that frankly are very weak and they are very weak,’ the president said as he left the White House for a campaign rally in Hershey, Pennsylvania. 

He hammered on the impeachment inquiry during his rally.

‘There are no crimes. They’re impeaching me, and there are no crimes,’ the president told his supporters. ‘This has to be a first in history.’  

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