SALT LAKE CITY — Impeachment articles against President Donald Trump have been forwarded to the U.S. House of Representatives, where lawmakers are expected to vote sometime next week on impeaching a sitting president for the third time in history.

The House Judiciary Committee on Friday advanced the resolution charging the president with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress on a party-line vote — 23 Democrats voting for and 17 Republicans voting against— on each article.

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Reaction to the vote reflected the deep partisan divide on impeachment with Republicans and the president remaining aggressive in their defense and House Democrats striking a more somber tone, according to media reports coming out of Washington, D.C.

”You’re trivializing impeachment, when you use it for absolutely nothing, other than trying for political gain,” Trump told reporters as he sat alongside the president of Paraguay in the Oval Office. ”It’s a sad thing for the country but a good thing for me politically.”

Trump expects to be impeached by the House and “looks forward to receiving in the Senate the fair treatment and due process which continues to be disgracefully denied to him by the House,” his press secretary Stephanie Grisham said.

“Today is a solemn and sad day,” committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., told reporters after the session. “For the third time in a little over a century and a half, the House Judiciary Committee has voted articles of impeachment against the president, for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The House will act expeditiously.”

None of Utah’s congressional delegation had any comment on the committee’s vote, including Utah Democratic Rep. Ben McAdams, who remains undecided on how he will vote next week.

Lawmakers solemnly filed into the Ways and Means Committee room Friday and quickly voted on each article, responded “aye” or “yes” for the Democrats, and simple “no’s” from the Republicans.

“The article is agreed to,” Nadler declared after each article was voted on.

Ranking Republican Rep. Doug Collins of Georgia said he would file dissenting views.

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., during a House Judiciary Committee markup of the articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, on Capitol Thursday, Dec. 12, 2019, in Washington. | Alex Brandon, Associated Press

The resolution charges Trump with using the “the powers of his high office” to solicit Ukraine to interfere in the 2020 election to his advantage.

The resolution also says the president obstructed Congress by ordering government officials to defy House subpoenas and block access to documents.

“Wherefore President Trump, by such conduct, has demonstrated that he will remain a threat to national security and the Constitution if allowed to remain in office, and has acted in a manner grossly incompatible with self-governance and the rule of law,” the resolution states. “President Trump thus warrants impeachment and trial, removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust or profit under the United States.”

Friday’s vote marks only the fourth time the impeachment of a sitting president has advanced to this stage. A House vote is expected sometime next week before lawmakers depart for the holidays. If the House impeaches the president, a Senate trial would happen sometime in January.

Trump is the third president to face an impeachment vote in the House. President Richard Nixon resigned before the House could vote in 1974. Presidents Bill Clinton (1998) and Andrew Johnson (1868) were impeached, but acquitted in their Senate trials. If Trump is impeached by the House, the GOP-controlled Senate is not expected to convict him.

House Judiciary Committee member Rep. Martha Roby (R-AL) (C), with her son George in her lap, votes against the first of two articles of impeachment against U.S. President Donald Trump during the final moments of a hearing in the Longworth House Office Building on Capitol Hill December 13, 2019 in Washington, DC. | Chip Somodevilla, Associated Press

The committee’s quick vote culminated two days of debate, including a marathon 14-hour session Thursday that at times turned contentious and personal. Republicans protested Nadler’s abrupt recess shortly after 11 p.m. in Washington and his decision to reconvene at 10 a.m. Friday, with some overheard yelling, “they just want to be on TV.”

“This is the kangaroo court that we’re talking about,” fumed Collins, who complained he had not been consulted on the decision. “They do not care about rules, they have one thing, their hatred of Donald Trump.”

But Nadler defended the recess, saying he wanted members “to search their consciences before we cast our final votes.”

Trump praised Republicans on the panel in an early morning tweet Friday, saying “the unity & sheer brilliance of these Republican warriors, all of them, was a beautiful sight to see.”

Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Pa., holds a copy of the U.S. Constitution as she speaks during a House Judiciary Committee markup of the articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, on Capitol Hill, Thursday, Dec. 12, 2019, in Washington. | Alex Brandon, Associated Press

Majority Democrats repeatedly voted down Republican amendments that would have removed the articles of impeachment entirely or portrayed a president concerned about addressing corruption in Ukraine — rather than pursuing his own political benefit — before releasing military aid the former Soviet country needed in its ongoing territorial war with Russia.

Impeachment “is the only mechanism Congress has on a president who would usurp powers and destroy the separation of powers,” said Nadler, arguing against a proposed amendment to strike the obstruction of Congress charge.

Republicans countered that the president was simply exerting executive privilege, “a time-honored right of every administration, both Republican and Democrat,” said Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Ohio. “When Congress disagrees with a particular assertion of executive privilege, the remedy is not impeachment. ... The remedy is to go to court.”

The impeachment proceedings launched in September center on a whistleblower complaint about a July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. According to a rough transcript of the call, Trump asked Zelenskiy for “a favor” — to open investigations into a theory that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 election and into political rival Joe Biden, whose son served on the board of a Ukrainian energy company when Biden was vice president.

The resolution alleges Trump conditioned $391 million in military aide to Ukraine and a White House meeting Zelenskiy wanted on an announcement the investigations would be conducted.

Trump and his Republican supporters don’t dispute what was said in the phone call, but they contend the president didn’t break the law because the military aid was released, no investigations were conducted and Zelenskiy has said publicly he felt no pressure from the president.

Several committee members who participated in the 1998 impeachment of Clinton compared the past and current proceedings during arguments over the fairness and due process afforded to Trump, who declined invitations to participate in the Judiciary hearings.

Judiciary members began debating the two articles of impeachment in a rare prime-time hearing Wednesday night with impassioned, and partisan, speeches that claimed the American people were on their side.

“When his time has passed, when his grip on our politics is gone, when our country returns, as surely it will, to calmer times and stronger leadership, history will look back on our actions here today,” Nadler said. “How would you be remembered?”

Collins said the impeachment proceedings will be remembered as a dark time when a majority in Congress wanted to override the election of a president they didn’t like.

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“That’s the wrong reason to impeach somebody, and the American people are seeing through this,” Collins said. “But at the end of the day, my heart breaks for a committee that has trashed this institution.”

Thursday’s hearing began with failed attempts by minority Republicans to obtain authorization from the committee to hold their own hearing and then amend the nine-page resolution introduced earlier this week that spells out the two articles of impeachment.

GOP Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio began the proposed changes by moving to strike the first article charging Trump with abuse of power, which Jordan said “ignores the truth. ... It ignores what happened and what has been laid out for the American people over the last three weeks.”

Contributing: Associated Press

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