Defiant Trump rails at Democrats after historic impeachment vote

A defiant president Donald Trump hit out at Democrats on Thursday, a day after the House of Representatives impeached him in a historic vote.

The Democrat-controlled House of Representatives charged Mr Trump with two articles of impeachment – abuse of power and obstruction of Congress – on Wednesday night, following hours of debate in the chamber. House speaker Nancy Pelosi opened the impeachment inquiry in September after details of a phone call between Mr Trump and the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy emerged, showing that the president asked his counterpart for a "favour".

But, speaking in the Oval Office on Thursday, Mr Trump denounced the impeachment as a “hoax” and a “set-up”.

I don't feel like I'm being impeached because it's a hoax, it's a set-up,  it's a horrible thing they did

Mr Trump was flanked by Jeff Van Drew, a New Jersey Democrat who confirmed on Thursday that he was joining the Republican party. Mr Van Drew's party switch had been expected, after he met with Mr Trump a week ago at the White House. Along with Collin Peterson of Minnesota, he was one of two Democrats to vote against the first article of impeachment – abuse of power – during Wednesday night's vote. A third Democrat, Jared Golden of Maine, also voted against the second article, obstruction of justice. All 187 Republicans opposed both articles of impeachment, while one Democrat – presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard – registered as "present" for the two votes, effectively abstaining. In a statement after the vote, Ms Gabbard said she was "standing in the centre" by voting in this way.

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‘Undying support’

Speaking alongside Mr Trump on Thursday, Mr Van Drew, who was elected to Congress for the first time in the 2018 mid-term elections in a district that voted for Mr Trump in 2016, said that Mr Trump had his “undying support”.

“I believe that this is just a better fit for me,” he said. “This is who I am.”

Asked by reporters how it felt to be impeached, Mr Trump replied: “I don’t feel like I’m being impeached because it’s a hoax, it’s a set-up, it’s a horrible thing they did.”

He also weighed in on the deepening standoff between the two houses of Congress over the length and scope of the Senate trial. Commenting on suggestions by senior Democrats that they could delay sending the articles of impeachment to the Senate for a trial, Mr Trump said: “they’re playing games . . . they’re not allowed to do that.” He also added that he heard that it could be unconstitutional. “They don’t want to put them in because they’re ashamed of them,” he said.

Is the president's case so weak that none of the president's men can defend him under oath?

Earlier, the Senate floor was the site of duelling perspectives on Wednesday’s historic impeachment. In a searing speech, senate majority leader Mitch McConnell accused Democrats of presiding over “the most unfair impeachment inquiry in modern history”. Noting that Mr Trump was not the first president with a “populist streak” and “not the first to make entrenched elites feel uncomfortable”, he said that Democrats had wanted to impeach Mr Trump since before he was inaugurated. The Nixon and Clinton impeachments had taken years, he said, involving “mountains of evidence” and “serious legal battles to get what was necessary”.

‘Defence’

“This time around House Democrats skipped all of that, and spent just 12 weeks.”

But his Democratic counterpart in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, said that Mr McConnell had not put forward "a single defence of the president of the United States on the merits" of the case. "Is the president's case so weak that none of the president's men can defend him under oath?" he said as he argued that witnesses should testify.

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives voted to approve the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), a wide-ranging trade deal which replaces Nafta, the 1990s agreement that governed trade between the three countries.

“Today is a momentous day for America’s economy, workers, environment, and families,” said Richard Neal, the chair of the Ways and Means committee which oversees trade. The Senate is expected to take up the proposal in the new year.