Hundreds of protests played out throughout the U.S. on Tuesday evening to demand that U.S. President Donald Trump be removed from office, an appropriately dramatic setup for Wednesday’s historic impeachment vote in the U.S. House.
The “Not Above the Law” demonstrations were organized by a coalition of progressive groups including Indivisible, Greenpeace, Stand Up America and Public Citizen. MoveOn, one of the groups, said on its Impeach & Remove page that the rallies would start at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday local time.
“Tonight, before the House of Representatives takes a historic vote to impeach Trump, we’ll head to more than 600 congressional offices and public squares to declare that Nobody Is Above the Law as representatives finalize their positions and senators look on,” MoveOn said on its website.
The rallies come on the eve of the full House voting on two articles of impeachment against Trump, charging abuse of power and obstruction of U.S. Congress. Almost every Democrat in the chamber they control plans to vote in favour of impeaching Trump, likely making him the third president in U.S. history to carry the “impeached” label after Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton.
The abuse of power charge relates to Trump’s attempt to pressure Ukraine to investigate one of his 2020 political rivals, former U.S. vice-president Joe Biden, and Biden’s son, Hunter, in exchange for the release of congressionally approved military aid. The obstruction of Congress charge relates to Trump’s repeated efforts to block lawmakers from gathering witness testimony and obtaining documents relevant to the impeachment inquiry.
If the House successfully impeaches Trump on Wednesday ― which it likely will ― then the process moves to the U.S. Senate for a trial. It would take 67 of the 100 senators in the Republican-controlled chamber to convict Trump of the charges, and the trial is expected to take place in the beginning of 2020.
No president has ever been convicted by the Senate and removed from office.
Tuesday’s protests were held in all 50 states, from Rockland, Maine, to Houston to Anchorage, Alaska. The organization added an interactive map of the U.S. for users to find out where the closest rally was to them.
Here are photos and videos that protesters tweeted from their rallies across the U.S., attaching hashtags such as #ImpeachmentEve and #NotAboveTheLaw: