On Wednesday, American President, Donald Trump, become the third US president in history to be impeached by the House of Representatives. However, he has not been removed from office.
For the record, to ‘impeach’ (US) is to ‘charge a public office holder with misconduct’. In the UK, it is to ‘charge someone with treason or another crime against the state’.
In Trump’s case, the House said the president abused his power and obstructed Congress. Nearly all Democrats voted for the charges and every Republican, Trump’s party lawmakers, voted against.
After 10 hours of partisan debate on the abuse of power stemming from Mr Trump’s alleged attempt to pressure Ukraine to announce investigations into his Democratic political rival, Joe Biden, the vote was 230 to 197 in favour of Democrats.
Only two Democrats opposed: New Jersey’s Jeff Van Drew, who is set to leave the party, and Michigan’s Collin Peterson.
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The second charge was obstruction of Congress because the president allegedly refused to co-operate with the impeachment inquiry, withholding documentary evidence and barring his key aides from giving evidence.
The vote was 229-198 in favour of the Democrats as no Republicans supported impeachment, although ex-party member Justin Amash, from Michigan, did.
What happens next is that the Senate will decide if Trump should be removed or not and the trial will take place in the New Year.
However, Republicans control the Senate, so it is highly unlikely he will be removed from power.
Being impeached has placed Donald Trump alongside only two other presidents in the nation’s history – Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton.
Born 73 years ago, Trump was initially a Democrat in 1987, became a Republican between 1987 and 1999, a Democrat between 2001 and 2009, a Republican between 2009 and 2011, then 2012 till date.
Succinctly, the diagram below explains the whole impeachment and removal process:
