Donald Trump has been impeached.
The House of Representatives voted 230-197 to approve the first article of impeachment charging Trump with abuse of power, and 229-198 for a second article charging with obstruction of Congress.
Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi opened the full day of debate, saying Trump gave them “no choice” but to push for impeachment.
“For centuries Americans have fought and died to defend democracy for the people, but very sadly now our founder’s vision of a republic is under threat from actions from the White House,” she said.
“If we do not act now, we would be derelict in our duty. It is tragic that the president’s reckless actions make impeachment necessary. He gave us no choice.”
The result makes Trump the third US president in history to be impeached by the House of Representatives.
So what next? Well, Trump will go on trial in the United States Senate, probably starting in January – although it’s incredibly unlikely that he will be removed from office, as the upper house is controlled by Republicans.
The White House released a statement saying that the president was “confident that he will be fully exonerated” in the Senate trial.
Trump (of course) was also busy tweeting during the impeachment debate.
“SUCH ATROCIOUS LIES BY THE RADICAL LEFT, DO NOTHING DEMOCRATS. THIS IS AN ASSAULT ON AMERICA, AND AN ASSAULT ON THE REPUBLICAN PARTY!!!!” he wrote.
GLAAD, the world’s largest LGBTQ media advocacy organisation, have been holding the President of the United States accountable for his anti-LGBTQ actions under their Trump Accountability Project (TAP) since he took office in 2017.
At the time of writing, GLAAD have recorded 133 attacks (either in rhetoric or policy) on the LGBTQ community from the Trump administration over the past 976 days.
“From the moment that President Trump was sworn in, LGBTQ people were erased from White House, Department of State, and Department of Labor websites and he has been targeting the LGBTQ community ever since,” GLAAD explained.
“We have seen egregious attacks on the transgender community including ongoing efforts to ban transgender soldiers from openly serving in the military and revoking non-discrimination protections for transgender youth at school.”
