‘He gave us no choice,” Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi said on Dec. 18, 2019. That Wednesday was a day of outrage and passion, a day of significance and history for the United States of America. Dec.18 marked the date of the full House of Representatives debate regarding the two impeachment articles against Donald Trump: Abuse of Power and Obstruction of Congress.

Presidential impeachment is the act in which the House of Representatives formally charges the President with specific crimes, in an attempt to convict and remove the President from office. If a federal official commits any high crimes and misdemeanors, the House of Representatives may impeach that official through a simple majority vote upon the articles of impeachment. If the House votes to impeach the president, the president is still in office until convicted in a Senate impeachment trial with a two-thirds supermajority vote.

President Trump was charged with two articles of impeachment constructed after an investigation, which was conducted by the House Judiciary Committee, and accused President Trump of pressuring Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden, former United States Vice President and Democratic frontrunner in the 2020 election. Trump argued that Biden ought to be investigated for pressuring Ukraine to halt an investigation that would criminalize his son, who worked for a Ukrainian oil company. Because Trump’s call occurred just days after he cut off $391 million in military aid to Ukraine, skeptics argue that this was a clear attempt by the president to use U.S. foreign aid as a bargaining chip in order to pressure Zelensky into going through with the investigation.

The first article, Abuse of Power, directly addresses this issue, as it is seen as a corrupt and unjust use of power for a president to use foreign government aid as leverage to discredit other candidates in an upcoming presidential election. With all Republicans and two Democrats standing in opposition, this article of impeachment passed with a 230 to 197 vote. The second article of impeachment, Obstruction of Congress, targeted President Trump for refusing to comply with subpoenas, and directing Trump Administration members to do the same, interfering with the judiciary committee’s investigation. This article passed with a vote of 229 to 198, meaning a third democrat joined in objection.

On Jan.15, 2020, the House turned the articles of impeachment over to the Senate, and on Jan. 16 the Senate formally received the articles. Now, as America waits for the possible outcomes of the Senate vote, they are left wondering about the impacts of the impeachment. Many politicians and reporters speculate that the Senate will not vote to remove Trump from office, since the majority of the U.S. senate is made up of Republicans (who are predicted to vote in support of President Trump), so the impeachment will likely take no real actions besides further polarizing America’s political spectrum.

“I think that while Trump’s impeachment is definitely a historic moment, whether it is good for the country or not is another thing,” CHS freshman Michael Ball said. “In my opinion, it was a ploy to hurt Trump in the election. Even though I don’t like Trump and think he should be fully impeached, I don’t believe it will be in the best interest for the country because it will only continue to pull the country apart.”

After House voting, it was confirmed that Donald Trump had become the third president in U.S. history to be impeached by the House of Representatives, after Clinton and Andrew Johnson. As the articles of impeachment are submitted to the Senate, Americans are sitting on the edge waiting to see what happens next.

“SUCH ATROCIOUS LIES BY THE RADICAL LEFT, DO NOTHING DEMOCRATS,” Trump tweeted on Dec. 18 in regards to the House impeachment vote. “THIS IS AN ASSAULT ON AMERICA, AND AN ASSAULT ON THE REPUBLICAN PARTY!!!!”