Colorado's U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette wielded the gavel Wednesday as the U.S. House of Representatives debated whether to impeach President Donald Trump on charges he abused his power and obstructed Congress.

Following more than 10 hours of partisan wrangling and often contentious debate, all four of Colorado's House Democrats voted to impeach Trump on both counts, and all three Republicans voted against it.

The House divided almost completely along party lines, voting 230-197 on the first article, charging abuse of power, and 229-198 on the second article, for obstructing Congress.

DeGette, a Denver Democrat, was chosen by Speaker Nancy Pelosi to preside as speaker pro tempore for what turned out to be a long day of speeches and procedural wrangling before the vote to send two article of impeachment to the Senate.

"This is a sad and somber moment in our nation’s history, and the responsibility to preside is something I won't take lightly," DeGette tweeted Wednesday morning.

She added in a statement: "None of us came to Congress to impeach a president, but every one of us — when we assumed office — took an oath to uphold the Constitution."

Her comments came in advance of more than 10 hours hours of back and forth between Democrats and Republicans, including brief statements delivered on the House floor from most of Colorado's delegation. 

U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse argued that President Trump and his administration has engaged in unprecedented efforts to block congressional oversight, leaving lawmakers no choice but to impeach the president.

The Lafayette Democrat reiterated some of the points he made last week in the House Judiciary Committee as the panel considered the charges against Trump.

"The fact of the matter is that the president abused the power of his office and invited a foreign country to interfere in our election," Neguse said. "In so doing, he undermined the sanctity of the free and fair elections upon which our republic rests."

U.S. Rep. Ken Buck maintained that past Democratic presidents weren't impeached after they committed abuses of power and "undermined democracy."

"Today Democrats lower the bar for impeachment," said Buck, a Windsor Republican and the chairman of the Colorado GOP. "Under this standard, a president can be impeached in the absence of a crime, without due process, for asserting a constitutionally recognized privilege."

Buck, who also sits on the Judiciary Committee, made a similar argument last week before voting against the two articles of impeachment that are now headed to the Senate.

U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton, a Cortez Republican, said that the charges against Trump are "unsubstantiated" and amount to an effort to reverse the result of the 2016 election.

He denounced the "theatrics and political posturing" of the president's detractors and scoffed at the notion impeachment is intended to preserve congressional checks and balance.

"Time for the sham to end!" Tipton said in a tweet he posted last week and retweeted as the debate began.

U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, a Colorado Springs Republican and one of the president's most enthusiastic defenders, dismissed Democrats' arguments as "misrepresentations."

Lamborn, who co-chairs Trump's 2020 re-election campaign in Colorado with Tipton, mocked the proceedings as a "partisan ploy" destined to run aground in the Republican-controlled Senate.

"This charade will fail, and the Senate will exonerate Trump, and everyone knows it," Lamborn said at the microphone.

In a tweet posted earlier Wednesday,the six-term congressman said Democrats have been "itching" to impeach Trump since his election, adding that "their hate ... is palpable."

"This has always been an impeachment in search of a crime, nothing else," Lamborn concluded.

As the vote approached, U.S. Rep. Jason Crow told the House that his duty to honor the sacrifices of Americans who have defended the country's system of government compels him to support impeaching Trump.

"The president’s abuse of power and scorn for our constitutional checks and balances is unprecedented," said Crow, an Aurora Democrat and Army Ranger combat veteran. "Unless we stand up against these abuses, we will set the country on a dangerous new course."

Crow was part of a group of Democratic House members who co-authored an opinion article in September that triggered the impeachment inquiry. The first-term lawmakers, who share military and national security backgrounds, called on Congress to determine whether Trump had withheld military aid to Ukraine to encourage an investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden, one of the president's leading political rivals.

"Our founders created a system to ensure we would have no kings or dictators, a system that vested power in the people, to ensure that no man or woman is above the law," Crow said as the historic vote neared on Wednesday.

"Generation after generation, this system has survived because people have fought for it. Today, it is our turn."

Crow said Sunday at a town hall meeting that he intended to vote for the impeachment articles. His announcement meant that Colorado's seven-member House delegation planned to vote along party lines to send the case to the Senate.

DeGette, who is serving her 12th term, is the only member of Colorado's congressional delegation who was in office the last time a president was impeached, when Bill Clinton was charged in 1998 by House Republicans with lying under oath and obstruction of justice. During the lame duck session at the end of her first term, DeGette voted against the articles of impeachment in the full House, and the Senate later acquitted Clinton.

The seventh member of Colorado's House delegation, U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter, didn't deliver remarks on the House floor Wednesday, since he spoke at length the day before during an impeachment debate before House Rules Committee.

After the House approved the articles, the Arvada Democrat issued a statement saying Trump should be impeached "[f]or the sake of the Constitution, fair elections free of foreign influence, and our national security."

"The Founders fought and died for freedom and independence from a tyrannical ruler and foreign government," Perlmutter said. "Impeachment and removal from office was the remedy they included in the Constitution to act as a check on a president who placed himself above the law, abused his power for his own personal benefit, and invited foreign governments to get involved in our domestic affairs, especially our elections."