The House just overwhelmingly killed the first attempt to impeach Trump

pulse

December 6, 2017 4:24 PM

Rep. Al Green of Texas, a Democrat, will force a vote to impeach President Donald Trump in the House on Wednesday, after months of threats to take action.

Rep. Al Green, a Democrat, planned to force a vote to impeach President Donald Trump.
The resolution failed, as Republicans control the House.
58 Democrats voted in favor of the resolution.

The House of Representatives on Wednesday overwhelmingly voted to kill a resolution from Rep. Al Green of Texas, a Democrat, that represented an attempt to impeach President Donald Trump.

Though Green's effort was assured to fail, he forced an up or down vote on the House floor through a privileged resolution. The motion to sideline the measure passed 364-58. Four other Democrats voted present.

The Democrats who voted against tabling the measure defied leadership, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who said now "is not the time" to consider impeachment.

BuzzFeed News reported on Tuesday that Green sent a letter to colleagues outlining the impeachment charges against Trump. Green's resolution claims that Trump has been harmful to the US, citing various comments the president has made, such as referring to white nationalist protesters as "very fine people" and describing Rep. Frederica Wilson as "whacky" on multiple occasions.

In addition, Green considers certain executive actions by Trump to be "inciting hatred and hostility," such as his ban on transgender Americans serving in the US armed forces.

Green has been threatening impeachment for months, regularly taking to the House floor to say that Trump is unfit to serve. And Green's reasons for impeachment regularly change.

In May, he delivered a speech on the House floor suggesting Trump be impeached for firing FBI Director James Comey, which Green said amounted to obstruction of justice. In October, he offered a resolution to impeach the president and quickly withdrew it without a vote.

But Green's plan will go nowhere. No Republicans have said that Trump ought to be removed from office and many Democrats, particularly those in the party's leadership, have said talk of impeachment is premature.

"I believe that whatever we do, we have a responsibility to first and foremost to unify the nation."

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