The Senate will decide Trump’s future

During the last days, the House of Representatives was on the lookout for the vote to determine if the president of the United States would have an "impeachment", as it is called in English. Voting, eventually, led Trump to a political trial.

After the committee responsible for investigating Trump and rescuing most of the possible evidence to determine that he had, in effect, abused his power and passed over Congress, thus violating the Constitution, the representatives had to vote whether or not they decided to take him to political trial.

Days earlier, on Tuesday, December 10, the Democratic representative, Jerrold Naddler, had publicly announced that the investigation by the House committee was ready and would be put to a vote. In the investigation were based the charges that were sought to be imputed with at least a dozen tests, including statements by members and former members of intelligence and administration that could account for the president's unconstitutional actions.

Thus, the vote of the Lower House ended up aligning, in general terms, with the political lines. That is to say, the majority of the Democratic representatives voted in favor of the positions and the Republicans, against.

These are some highlights of the voting day that lasted 6 hours last Wednesday, December 18:

– 230 votes to charge the charge of abuse of power, against 197 for not doing so.

– 229 votes to charge the obstruction charge to Congress, against 198 for not doing so.

– A Democratic representative only voted in favor of one of the charges.

– Two Democratic representatives did not vote in favor of either of the two charges. At least one of them, Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey, is expected to change matches soon.

– A Republican-independent representative, Justin Amash of Michigan, voted to charge both charges.

What's next

The premise that Donald Trump will be the third president of the history of the United States to go to political trial is of great importance. However, the step to reach a possible removal is long and possibly stay on the road, as happened with the other two lpresidents who went through the same, Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton.

What seems like a triumph for Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic committee that promoted the investigations against the president, could remain there in the Senate vote, which will be held next January.

Also read: "Nobody, not even the president, is above the law", Jerrold Nadler

If it follows the same line of the House voting, where the representatives voted in line with their party, the most likely is that the political trial takes place, because the Senate is a Republican majority.

According to the US Constitution, in the vote, two thirds of the senators must access the complaint. However, the Constitution does not talk about specific points as to how the trial should be conducted, beyond the vote should being public. For this reason, the senators are the ones who decide what evidence they want to admit, if there will be witnesses present and how long the presentation of each test will last.

Although the Senate throughout history has created some guidelines to make this trial as fair as possible for both parties, both parties have different positions on how to proceed. According to The Washington Post, it will be Mitch McConnell (leader of the Senate Majority) and Charles E. Schumer (Senate Minority Leader) who must agree. One of the main points on which they differ, and perhaps a decisive one in the trial, is that McConnell does not want to allow witnesses to appear, which Schumer considers fundamental.