WASHINGTON, D.C. — As expected, with all 23 Democrats voting ‘yes’ and all 17 Republicans — including Ohio’s Steve Chabot and Jim Jordan — voting ‘no,’ the House Judiciary Committee passed two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump on Friday morning.
- House Judiciary Committee passes articles of impeachment
- Articles now head to full House for vote
- Ohio Reps Chabot and Jordan voted no
The articles now head to the full U.S. House of Representatives, where a vote is expected next week.
Friday’s committee vote came after a marathon 14 hours of debating on Thursday that lasted until almost midnight.
Jordan (R-04) kicked off the debate by proposing an amendment to throw out the article of impeachment alleging the president abused his power by attempting to leverage military aid in exchange for Ukraine investigating his political opponent.
“Article 1 in this resolution ignores the truth, it ignores the facts, it ignores what happened and what has been laid out for the American people over the last three weeks,” Jordan said.
Chabot (R-01) backed Jordan up by claiming Democrats are only doing this because of their dislike for Trump.
“The entire argument for impeachment in this case is based on a charge that is not a crime,” Chabot said. “If that’s the best you got, you wasted a whole lot of time and taxpayer dollars all because so many of you, Mr. Chairman, hate this president.”
Chabot and Jordan officially voted against the articles on Friday.
Only four of Ohio’s 16 U.S. House members are Democrats and none of them sit on the House Intelligence or Judiciary committees that held the impeachment hearings leading up to this point.
But Ohio Democrats Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-03) and Rep. Tim Ryan (D-13) spoke with Spectrum on Thursday to explain why they think Republicans are wrong to defend the president.
“We all know that you cannot engage with a foreign president, the president of the Ukraine, for your own political benefit against a political rival,” Beatty said. “And he did that.”
“I wish we were not focused on this,” Ryan said. “I wish this wasn’t happening, but it is and I think we have a responsibility to say that the president cannot be trying to basically shakedown a foreign leader to investigate a political opponent back here at home. That’s not right.”
It’s expected that the full House of Representatives will vote on the articles of impeachment next week.
Because Democrats are in the majority in the House, it’s likely the articles will be passed. Then a trial will take place in the Senate — likely in January — to decide if President Trump should be removed from office.