WASHINGTON — The only thing they could agree on was that it was a solemn day.
For Democrats, the historic House vote on Thursday to formalize the ongoing impeachment inquiry into President Trump was a step that they said pained them to take but was necessary to defend the Constitution.
“The founders didn’t want a king, they didn’t want a dictator, they didn’t want a monarch, they wanted a democracy and that is exactly what we are defending right now,” said Representative Hakeem Jeffries, a New York Democrat. “No one is above the law.”
But for Republicans, the move was just another step in what they branded an unfair and partisan exercise — “a show trial,” “a sham,” “a travesty” — pushed forward by Democrats intent on overturning the 2016 presidential election.
“No matter what is said by the other side today, this is a dark day and a cloud has fallen on this House,” declared Representative Doug Collins of Georgia.
When they cast their votes — the third time in modern history the House had done so on a presidential impeachment investigation — the 232-196 tally split almost exactly down party lines in what was seen as a test for an eventual vote on articles of impeachment.
All but two Democrats voted for the resolution. No Republican supported it.
So after months of political maneuvering, weeks of closed-door hearings, and one morning of intense 90-minute House debate, the Trump impeachment inquiry entered a new public phase.
The fight over the message to voters heading into the 2020 election is only heating up.
“At this stage, I think the process is being fought on the battlefield of optics,” said Ross Baker, a political science professor at Rutgers University. “This formalization gives the process a better appearance. It kind of neatens it up, it makes it look more like something that the Congress is openly proud to be doing or the Democrats are openly proud to be doing.”
The measure sets rules for public hearings in the investigation into allegations Trump pressured the leader of Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden and his son and also gives Trump and his attorneys new rights in the proceedings. The resolution allows the House Intelligence Committee to release transcripts of the depositions they have taken in closed sessions.
Trump’s campaign offered a preview of the new phase of the fight Wednesday night by airing an anti-impeachment ad during Fox’s TV broadcast of the World Series, with the narrator saying that “the Democrats would rather focus on impeachment and phony investigations, ignoring the real issues.”
In a packed House chamber Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the vote was “not any cause for any glee.” Signalling the importance of the occasion, she stood at the House rostrum, gavel in hand, and presided over the vote herself – something reserved for only the most momentous occasions.
“What is at stake is nothing less than our democracy,” she said, met with a round of applause as she finished her remarks. “What we are fighting for is defending our democracy for the people.”
It was a day for high-minded oratory, constitutional references and dueling symbols.
Like some other Democrats, Pelosi delivered her remarks on the House floor standing next to a large placard with the image of an American flag.
Not to be outdone, Representative Steve Scalise, a top Republican from Louisiana, pointed to his own placard next to him as he as he spoke. It contained a blown-up photograph of the Kremlin with an image of a hammer and sickle and the words “37 days of Soviet-style impeachment proceedings.”
After the vote, Scalise waved a printed tally before reporters.
“Our members were committed to doing the right thing for this country,” he said, pointing to the solid Republican opposition. “Democrats have this process in such a way that is illegitimate, that keeps happening away from the American public, that keeps information away from the American public.”
Trump had delivered his own message via Twitter after the vote: “The Greatest Witch Hunt In American History!”
Until September, Pelosi and House Judiciary chairman Jerry Nadler had been at odds over whether to move forward with the impeachment inquiry. She at first opted for a slower route through the courts and multiple committee investigations, fearing a formal impeachment inquiry could backfire politically because of tepid public support and near-solid Republican opposition.
But a whistle-blower complaint about Trump’s July call with Ukraine’s president turbocharged the impeachment effort. Pelosi called for a formal inquiry and put House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff at the helm. As the investigation proceeds, House Republican leaders have argued they have been shut out of the process, complaints that culminated last week as a group of them stormed a closed-door committee hearing.
“I get it, my friends on the other side of the aisle want to talk about process, process, process” Massachusetts Representative Jim McGovern, the author of the impeachment procedures resolution, said during Thursday’s debate. “But it’s interesting that not one of them wants to talk about the president’s conduct and that speaks volumes.”
But from the Republican side of the chamber, Representative Tom Cole of Oklahoma fired back at “my friend Mr. McGovern.”
“We’re debating process here because that’s what this is,” Cole said. “This is a process resolution to impeach the president of the United States. You didn’t accept a single amendment. . . . You didn’t confer with us when you did it, so that’s why we’re talking process. It’s an unfair process.”
Leaving the House chamber Thursday, Representative Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey, one of the two Democrats who voted against the resolution, said his fellow Democrats tried to sway him in support of the inquiry with “gentle conversation” but without pressure.
He still voted “no,” he said, joining Democratic Representative Collin Peterson of Minnesota because he believed the inquiry would only further divide the country.
“The bar for impeachment is very high,” said Van Drew, a first-term lawmaker who last year flipped a district that voted for Trump in 2016. “There’s a reason that nobody has been successfully convicted of an impeachment in the entire history of the United States of America.”
But just the word impeachment, echoing over and over again Thursday in the House, left members of both parties feeling gloomy as they departed into a drizzle for a week-long recess.
Massachusetts Representative Ayanna Pressley, who has supported an impeachment inquiry since April, said the vote “just means we’re staying the course.”
Walking down a marble hallway of the Capitol, she said she felt somber but also “emboldened to continue to do this because our very democracy depends on it.”
Laura Krantz of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Reach Jazmine Ulloa at jazmine.ulloa@globe.com.