As soon as the House gaveled in Wednesday, Republican lawmakers launched their procedural attack on the impeachment vote against President Trump scheduled for later in the day.
Rep. Andy Biggs, Arizona Republican, made a motion to adjourn for the day, which was destined to fail but would delay the all-but-inevitable impeachment of Mr. Trump. It was rejected on a 188-226 vote.
House Democrats are poised to make Mr. Trump only the third president in U.S. history to suffer impeachment. The vote is expected late in the day.
The tactics put the House about an hour behind schedule. Lawmakers still need to debate the rule itself for an hour before they can begin to debate the articles themselves.
Lawmakers are slated to spend six hours debating two articles of impeachment — abuse of power and obstruction of Congress — and dig into the partisan trenches they’ve built over the past two months.
The article of impeachment for abuse of power stems from allegations that Mr. Trump leveraged a White House meeting and nearly $400 million in military aid to pressure the Ukrainian president to investigate political rival, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden, and Ukraine meddling in the 2016 election.
The second article, obstruction of Congress, is rooted in the administration’s refusal to cooperate with Democrats’ subpoenas of witnesses and documents in the impeachment inquiry.
• Gabriella Muñoz can be reached at gmunoz@washingtontimes.com.
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