Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House of Representatives, had just announced the results of the first vote on the two Donald Trump indictments on Wednesday, December 18. A few timid applause on the Democratic benches immediately drew an unanswerable glance and gesture from the elected official from California. The applause immediately fell silent. Now was not the time for a victory celebration.
The epilogue to the session during which Donald Trump became the third president in the history of the United States indicted for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress was expected. Almost no voices were missed. The first article was adopted by 230 votes against 197, and the second by 229 votes against 198. At least 216 were needed to validate them.
The two blocs had already clashed throughout a day of bitter and tense explanations for the vote. One after the other, the Democrats expressed their "Sadness", assuring that they have resolved themselves to the last constitutional end, which is the procedure ofimpeachment. "The President has left us no choice, said Nancy Pelosi at the very start of the session, if we did not act now, we would have failed in our duty. " One after the other, they reiterated that the Ukrainian case was overwhelming in their eyes, as was the obstructionist tactic chosen by the White House, which refused to cooperate with the House of Representatives.
The Ukrainian affair started with the reporting of a whistleblower after an alarming telephone conversation between Donald Trump and his Kiev counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, on July 25. During this conversation, the President of the United States had asked " A favor " : investigations into his opponents, including former Democratic Vice President Joe Biden, presidential nomination candidate for 2020, whose son Hunter had served on the board of directors of a Ukrainian gas company. The House’s investigation uncovered a give-and-take service in Kiev through an informal diplomatic channel led by the President’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.
Dozens of successive Democratic speakers on Wednesday assured that in the United States "No one is above the law", and that by voting in favor of the impeachment of the President, they intended to honor their oath to respect and protect the Constitution, calling upon the most eloquent Founding Fathers, from Alexander Hamilton to James Madison.
