By a vote of 332 to 95, with one lawmaker simply voting "present," the House voted to table a motion introduced Tuesday by Rep. Al Green (D-TX) to bring Trump to trial. While impeachment proceedings have been tabled before during Trump’s presidency, this was the first such occasion since the Democrats seized control over the House last November, and thus reflects strongly on liberal demands for impeachment that began almost as soon as Trump took office in January 2017. Two other attempts were also made by Green.
"President Donald Trump's racist comments that have legitimatized and increased fear and hatred of new Americans and people of color," Green said Tuesday night on the House floor, immediately that body approved a nonbinding resolution condemning Trump’s attacks on four congresswomen as “racist.”
"Donald John Trump, by causing such harm to the society of the United States, is unfit to be president and warrants impeachment, trial and removal from office,” Green said. He was nonspecific as to what specific charges were intended to be brought against the president.
Green clarified Wednesday that “bigotry” was a “high crime and misdemeanor,” going on to falsely claim that President Andrew Johnson, who succeeded President Abraham Lincoln after the latter’s 1865 assassination, had been impeached for bigotry. In fact, Johnson was impeached for violating a law concerning the appointment of Cabinet officials.
On Tuesday, the four Democratic congresswomen attacked by Trump - Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib - also said it was “time to impeach” Trump for “promoting the "agenda of white nationalists.”
More than 80 members of the 435-person body have called for beginning the process of impeachment, NBC reported, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a leading Democrat, has tried in recent months to quell the enthusiasm among her party for impeachment, and other Democratic leaders have said they believe the time for impeachment has now passed. The Democrats control 235 seats and require 218 for a majority.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, has vowed to kill any attempt at impeachment before it begins.