House Judiciary Committee abruptly adjourns after marathon debate, will vote on articles of impeachment Friday morning

The House Judiciary Committee spent more than 14 hours Thursday locked in a rancorous and contentious debate about whether to approve two articles of impeachment against President Trump, with Democrats making an abrupt decision before midnight to hold off on the history-making vote until Friday morning.

The all-day debate ended as it began, with angry exchanges, personal insults and recycled arguments about process and propriety as the committee moved toward voting to impeach Trump for “high crimes and misdemeanors.”

“It has been a long two days of consideration of these articles, and it is now very late at night,” said Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), at 11:15 p.m. “I want the members on both sides of the aisle to think about what has happened over these last two days and to search their consciences before we cast our final votes.”

He then banged his gavel and said lawmakers should return on Friday at 10 a.m. for the final votes to send articles of impeachment to the House floor next week.