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San Diegans react after the president is impeached

Wednesday’s vote makes the 45th president only the third commander in chief to face the penalty of impeachment after Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton.

SAN DIEGO COUNTY, Calif. — A historic day on Capitol Hill came to an end with the impeachment of the president of the United States.

Congressman Scott Peters, who represents the 52nd Congressional district, weighed in saying, “Republicans have not sought the truth. They have sought to avoid the truth.”

Dan Eaton is a legal and political analyst based in San Diego. He said a vote for impeachment must go to the Senate where the Republican have the majority – meaning removal of the president is unlikely.

“The two-third majority was put in to the Constitution to make sure there was something approaching a broad national consensus before a president is removed from office,” said Eaton.

Senators must take an oath to be impartial before an impeachment trial, but Eaton said, “Let’s be serious. Nobody really believes these senators are going to be impartial. Each senator is going to vote according to his or her conscience about whether President Trump needs to be removed.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi kicked off the six hours of debate shortly after noon Eastern time.

Wednesday’s vote makes the 45th president only the third commander in chief to face the penalty of impeachment after Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton. Richard Nixon resigned before the House could vote.

Political analyst Laura Fink said this has proven to be an opportunity cost to President Trump. 

"It still remains to be seen how this will play out politically. Impeachment has distracted him form being able to tout the economy and his accomplishments. Instead, we are focused on accusations of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress," said Fink. 

One San Diegan said they are anxious to see a full-fledged trail once the process transitions to the Senate. 

"I am hoping some witnesses are called and we get some stuff uncovered because I think there is a lot of corruption in Washington on both sides of the aisle and it is time to air the dirty laundry and get rid of some of those people," they said. 

"Before he even got elected they decided to impeach him. It is hard to trust that," said another San Diegan. 

The next step is for Speaker Nancy Pelosi to appoint House Mangers to argue the case before the Republican-controlled Senate, but on Wednesday night Speaker Pelosi said she might wait to name them until she knows how the Senate intends to proceed. 

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