The House has voted to Formalize the Impeachment Inquiry

By TMO Staff

Recently, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, announced a vote to formalize the impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump. House Speaker Pelosi moved forward with the vote after weeks of President Trump and some Republicans had called the impeachment inquiry invalid without the House vote.

In order to formalize the impeachment inquiry, the House passed a resolution and created an outline for future procedures in the public hearings. The House passed the resolution with a vote of 232 for and 196 against. Only two democrats decided to vote with the republicans against formalizing the inquiry. House Speaker wrote in a letter to her caucus that

“For weeks, the President, his Counsel in the White House, and his allies in Congress have made the baseless claim that the House of Representatives impeachment inquiry ‘lacks the necessary authorization for a valid impeachment proceeding… They argue that, because the House has not taken a vote, they may simply pretend the impeachment inquiry does not exist.”

House Speaker Pelosi continued in her letter that her recent step is “to eliminate any doubt as to whether the Trump Administration may withhold documents, prevent witness testimony, disregard duly authorized subpoenas, or continue obstructing the House of Representatives.”

Over the past few weeks, several republican representatives and senators have been outspoken in their opposition to the impeachment inquiry. Some have interrupted classified meetings on Capitol Hill with press meetings. The interruptions are demonstrations to prevent any investigations of President Trump from ever occurring.

Since the resolution has passed, Intelligence Committee chair Adam Schiff has been the lead of future public hearings for the impeachment inquiry. The House has already subpoenaed several individuals in the Trump administration, including Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and Bill Taylor, a current United States Diplomat to Ukraine.

Impeachment has been something that has been slowly creeping up on President Trump since the beginning of his presidency. With the Mueller investigation of Russian meddling to numerous sexual harassment scandals and now his connection to Ukraine’s investigation into the United States, President Trump has had a controversial experience in the White House.

The American people and elected officials have had very polarized views of impeaching President Trump; they’re either for impeachment or against it. The people for it cite the controversies that have surrounded President Trump for years. The people against it are either supporters of President Trump or they do not want the impeachment process to begin without a sufficient amount of evidence to go through with an impeachment.

As the House sends out more subpoenas for individual testimonies, more information will be revealed on the impeachment process and next steps for Congress.