His eventually obituary, that is how we wrap up our wednesday night broadcast. Thank you so very much for being here with us. Good night from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. It is wednesday, the 18th Of December in the year 2019 and President Donald Trump is impeached. The vote in the House Of Representatives tonight to impeach the president was not close. It was 230 to 197 on the first article, which was abuse of power. One democrat voted present. On the second article, Obstruction Of Congress, it was a vote of 229198, again, with one vote present. These were not slim margins. The successful vote to impeach the president tonight, of course, does not remove him from office. The decision of whether or not to remove him from office will now be made in the United States senate, where hell be put on trial in a proceeding overseen
by the Chief Justice of the United States supreme court. Were talking about that as if it is a forgone conclusion, as if thats the next obvious thing
it s really very vague about what a senate trial should be except for the fact there should be one and the chief justice should be there presiding. okay, and on that point of how the senate is going to conduct this, we also just saw unfold in that press conference right after the vote tonight, michael, where the speaker and the intelligence committee chairman and the judiciary committee chairman are taking questions from reporters. and what arises quickly is the revelation there s actually no commitment yet from the house, from the speaker that she is going to deliver those articles of impeachment to the senate so they can use them as the basis of the senate trial to potentially remove president trump from office. a long back and forth in which she would not talk about when that is going to happen. then she was pressed to commit that it eventually would happen, she said, she s not raising that prospect that she won t deliver the articles to the senate. that was raised by reporters. s
person, as a member of this jury, but the question of whether the house might have some leverage in terms of trying to get the senate to pick rules that are agreed to on bipartisan terms, is now a very live question. in the impeachment senate trial of bill clinton, the top democrat and the top republican worked together, they came up with rules for that senate trial for president clinton that were agreed to by a bipartisan unanimous 100-0 vote. doesn t seem like anything like that is going to happen, but the prospect was being discussed there in that heated back and forth with a number of different reporters that the house, nancy pelosi, may hold onto these articles of impeachment now, they have passed the house and the president is impeached, she s not committing to when she s going to hand those articles of impeachment over to the senate, saying that she wants to see what is agreed to in the senate as to their rules and as to their plans procedures for putting president trump on tria
his eventually obituary, that is how we wrap up our wednesday night broadcast. thank you so very much for being here with us. good night from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. it is wednesday, the 18th of december in the year 2019 and president donald trump is impeached. the vote in the house of representatives tonight to impeach the president was not close. it was 230 to 197 on the first article, which was abuse of power. one democrat voted present. on the second article, obstruction of congress, it was a vote of 229-198, again, with one vote present. these were not slim margins. the successful vote to impeach the president tonight, of course, does not remove him from office. the decision of whether or not to remove him from office will now be made in the united states senate, where he ll be put on trial in a proceeding overseen
substantive discussion as to what s going to happen next. as you know, impeaching the president means that he s impeached, he s the third one ever. it was johnson in the 1800s, it was clinton in the 1900s, and it is trump in the 2000s. it s very hard to remove a president, they need a two-thirds vote in the senate. the senate conducts it as a trial. it s a very difficult process. it s never before been used to remove a president. but there is some drama as this now heads to the senate, in part because there has been no agreement in the united states senate as to how this trial of president trump is going to be conducted. there have been provocative comments, including some referenced tonight by speaker of the house nancy pelosi, provocative comments from the senate majority leader, the lead republican in the senate, mitch mcconnell, about his desire to not even be seen as an impartial