Judiciary panel approves impeachment articles

WASHINGTON—Two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump will head to a full floor vote next week after passing in the House Judiciary Committee 23-17 along party lines on Friday. The committee failed to vote on the articles on Thursday as planned despite a marathon, 14-hour markup session. Trump would become the third U.S. president to be impeached if the House passes the articles.

Why did the committee get stuck? Republicans offered multiple amendments to the measures. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, wanted to strike the article that accuses Trump of abuse of power. (The other alleges the president obstructed Congress.) One Republican amendment would have replaced a mention of investigations into Trump’s political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, with references to Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, and the Ukrainian company Burisma. Republicans argued Burisma and Hunter Biden, not the former vice president, were the real subjects of the investigations Trump requested from Ukraine. The Democratic majority on the panel rejected every proposed amendment. Following Thursday’s session, Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., rescheduled the committee’s vote for Friday morning, a move Republicans slammed as a bid to get it on television.

Dig deeper: Read my report in The Stew on the politics of impeachment.