House Passes Motion Blocking Bid to Impeach Trump

Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images

Lawmakers voted 332 to 95 to table resolution, with Republicans joined by majority of split Democratic caucus

The House voted to block an effort to impeach President Trump, in the first test of the divisive issue since Democrats took control of the chamber.

Lawmakers voted 332 to 95 Wednesday to table the resolution, with Republicans joined by a majority of the split Democratic caucus in passing the motion.

The vote to table the resolution comes as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) has worked to avoid launching impeachment proceedings, which she sees as premature and politically risky.

But outrage over Mr. Trump’s racist tweets about four lawmakers earlier this week prompted Rep. Al Green (D., Texas) to introduce the new impeachment push Tuesday. He proposed the resolution shortly after the House voted, largely along party lines, to condemn the president’s remarks.

Because Mr. Green’s resolution is privileged under House rules, it forced a vote—on whether to table the motion, setting it aside; refer it to the judiciary committee; or hold a vote on the article of impeachment. When Republicans held the majority, Democrats forced a vote twice. In both cases, the GOP successfully moved to table the resolution.

If the House ultimately voted to impeach the president, the measure would fail in the Republican-controlled Senate.

The impeachment push has split the party. Roughly 90 of the 235 Democrats in the House have said they back an impeachment inquiry into the president, and support has risen steadily in recent months.

Those opposed to impeachment, often in the political center or from districts that supported the president in 2016, see it as a move that alienates voters and is very unlikely to result in the president being removed from office.

That split was evident in Wednesday’s vote, in which 95 Democrats, including Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler of New York, opposed the measure to kill the impeachment resolution.

Read the rest from the WSJ HERE.

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