US House to vote on President's impeachment; Trump: "I did nothing wrong"

After the vote, in which Democrats are expected to support the impeachment of the president, the vote will pass to the Senate. There, the president is expected to be credited in light of Republican control of the House. To get impeached, two-thirds of the Senate must be convicted. Trump protests: "It's a terrible thing"

Direct broadcast from the House of Representatives (Photo: Reuters)

The United States House of Representatives discusses two impeachment counts Wednesday against U.S. President Donald Trump as part of the Ukraine-Gate affair. During the night, House members will vote on Trump's ouster. He will be only the third president in U.S. history to be ousted by the House of Representatives, but he is expected to be credited with a Republican-controlled Senate impeachment trial scheduled for next month.

Before the vote, Trump continued to lobby Democrats. "You can believe that I will be cheated today by the radical left, by the Democrats who are doing nothing, and I did nothing wrong! It's a terrible thing," Trump wrote on Twitter. "Show Prayer!". Yesterday, he sent a scathing letter to Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi saying the impeachment process against him was an "illegal" coup, and White House reporters said "it was a total disgrace from the beginning."

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Enraged at the Democrats. Trump (Photo: AP)

US President Trump at White House, December 13, 2019 (Photo: AP)

House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy blamed House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff and Democrat Jerry Nadler for "exploiting their power as committee chairmen." In addition, Schiff blamed his involvement in "a false story of the telephone conversation between Trump Laszlansky on July 25. "

On the other hand, the House Speaker of the House, Democrat Elliott Angel, said today was "a significant landmark that demonstrates the strength of our democracy." At the Capitol building, Angel said, "This is a tough time for everyone."

Voting in the Senate, a Senate trial: The next steps in the Trump impeachment process

Trump demonstrations ousted by Trump outside Capitol, today (Photo: Reuters)

US President Donald Trump demonstrates support for Washington Dec. 18, 2019 (Photo: Reuters)

Pelosi, in turn, addressed a letter to all 232 Democratic congressmen urging them to "defend the Constitution," saying no one came to Congress to oust a president. She attacked Trump, adding: "The president acted as if he was not criticized, over the Constitution and over the American people."

The Democrats, who are in power in the House of Representatives, need only a regular majority - 218 votes out of 435 members - and after voting for the president's ouster. In the Senate, the president of the Supreme Court will run the trial, and to bring about Trump's impeachment, about two-thirds of a hundred senators have determined he is "guilty." Then he will be convicted, removed from the White House and his deputy Mike Pence will be replaced.

"Protect the Constitution." Pelosi arrives in parliament (Photo: Reuters)

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi comes to Congress ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump's impeachment process December 18, 2019 (Photo: Reuters)

This is the third time in American history that a president is facing an impeachment trial. The last was Bill Clinton in 1998, and before that it was Andrew Johnson in 1868. Both were acquitted in the Senate. Republican President Richard Nixon resigned before the congressional trial began, at the end of which he was expected to be ousted because of the Watergate affair. However, no American president has ever been ousted.

The history of the affair

The affair began in July, after he learned that Trump was having a conversation with Ukraine's new president, Volodymyr Zalanski, in which he allegedly exerted undue pressure on him when he asked him to launch investigations to help him politically.

In exchange for those investigations - against Joe Biden and his son Hunter, who was a member of the management of a Ukrainian energy company when Barack Obama's father - and promoting a conspiracy theory that Ukraine, rather than Russia, interfered in the previous election, the president allegedly stole $ 400 million in military aid Of Zlanski in the White House. Since the case exploded following an anonymous intelligence complaint, the funds were transferred to Kiev.

Democrats said Trump's pressure on Ukraine, struggling with pro-Russian separatists and dependent on US aid, is an abuse of his authority - a violation that, under the United States Constitution, is a cause for impeachment proceedings against a president.

(Update first: 14:44)

Trump supporter outside Capitol, today (Photo: Reuters)

US President Donald Trump demonstrates support for Washington Dec. 18, 2019 (Photo: Reuters)