The House Judiciary Committee voted Friday morning to approve two articles of impeachment of President Donald Trump. Both articles passed 23-17 along party lines in a historic vote that lasted only a few minutes.
The articles now head for the House floor where the full body will need to approve the articles in order to officially impeach the president. The House has not indicated when it will take up that vote, but CNN reports it could come as early as next Wednesday.
The Senate would then hold a trial to decide whether President Trump will be removed from the office.
The first article of impeachment accuses the President of abusing his power. The second accuses President Trump of obstruction of Congress.
The vote comes after the committee spent 14-hours debating amendments to the articles, including one to eliminate the first article on abuse of power, a second that would remove a reference to former Vice President Joe Biden. A third amendment was also voted on to note that the nearly $400 million in military aid for Ukraine that was withheld was eventually released, a fourth that would remove the second article on obstruction of Congress and lastly, an effort to remove the last lines in each article.
All amendments were voted down in a party line vote late Thursday night.
In an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity on Thursday, Senate Majority Leader said there was "no chance" that President Donald Trump would be removed from office in any impeachment trial in the Senate and that it wouldn't surprise him if some Senate Democrats joined Republicans in voting for the President.
"The case is so darn weak coming from the House," McConnell said. "We know how it's going to end. There's no chance the president's going to be removed from office."
"My hope is that there won't be a single Republican who votes for either of these articles of impeachment, and Sean, it wouldn't surprise me if we got one or two Democrats," McConnell added.
While Democrats in the House are widely expected to affirm the articles of impeachment against the president, it's up to the Republican-held Senate to conduct a trial and vote to remove Trump from office. The Constitution requires a two-thirds majority to convict the president, with the GOP holding a 53-47 advantage, it's unlikely Democrats will find the votes necessary.
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