House impeaches President Trump for second time

The House on Wednesday impeached President Donald Trump for a second time, charging him with “incitement of insurrection” for his role in the violent riot by a mob of the US Capitol that left five people dead and terrorised lawmakers as they sought to affirm President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.

The vote to impeach passed the Democratic-controlled House was 232 to 197, with 10 Republicans voting against the president.

The House is expected to immediately send the article of impeachment to the Senate for them to begin the process of holding a trial to determine whether to convict Trump and potentially bar him from ever running for any office again.

 

However, it is unlikely that the trial will begin before the Senate plans to reconvene on January 19th, just one day before Biden is sworn into office.

Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, a member of the GOP leadership, was the highest ranking Republican to vote to impeach Trump.

She was joined by John Katko of New York, Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, Fred Upton of Michigan, Peter Meijer of Michigan, Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio, Tom Rice of South Carolina, David Valadao of California, and Jaime Herrera Beutler and Dan Newhouse of Washington.

No House Republican voted to impeach Trump during the inquiry earlier in his term that resulted in a Senate acquittal.

“Those insurrectionists were not patriots. They were not part of a political base to be catered to or managed. They were domestic terrorists and justice must prevail,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on the House floor, kicking off two hours of debate before the final vote was held.

“But they did not appear out of a vacuum. They were sent here, sent here by the president, with words such as a cry to ‘fight like hell’.

“The president saw the insurrectionists not as the foes of freedom, as they are, but as the means to a terrible goal: the goal of him personally clinging to power.”

Many House Republicans argued during debate that Trump was not afforded due process and that the impeachment process was rushed. Some said that impeaching the president for a second time would only further divide the country while others maintained that Trump’s actions on January 6th did not meet the legal standard for incitement.

“I believe impeaching the president in such a short timeframe would be a mistake,” Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California, the top House Republican, said during debate.

“No investigations have been completed. No hearings have been held,” he added. “A vote to impeach will further fan the flames of partisan division.”

Other Republicans cried hypocrisy, criticizing Democrats for their support for the Black Lives Matter protests that swept the country last summer.

“For months, our cities burned, police stations burned, our businesses were shattered, and they said nothing,” said Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla. “Some have cited the metaphor that the president lit the flame. Well, they lit actual flames.”

It is unclear what will happen in the Senate once the trial begins. Although Trump is likely to have already left office by then, a vote to convict Trump could still bar him from holding federal office again.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told his Republican colleagues Wednesday afternoon that he remains undecided on whether he will vote to convict the president.

“While the press has been full of speculation, I have not made a final decision on how I will vote and I intend to listen to the legal arguments when they are presented to the Senate,” McConnell wrote in a letter to his colleagues.

The impeachment vote follows a House vote late Tuesday night to formally call on Vice President Mike Pence to use the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office.

The act, which was largely symbolic, passed the House 223 to 205 along partisan lines with Kinzinger as the sole Republican to vote in favor of the measure.

Pence, who was one of the targets of the violent mob that attacked the Capitol last week, informed Pelosi shortly before the vote that he would not invoke the 25th Amendment, writing in a letter to the speaker that he didn’t believe “such a course of action is in the best interest of our nation or consistent with our Constitution.”

As the House debated the article of impeachment, Trump, unable to tweet about the process as he did when the House impeached him in December 2019 after Twitter banned his account last week, released a statement urging that “there must be NO violence, NO lawbreaking and NO vandalism of any kind.”

“That is not what I stand for, and it is not what America stands for. I call on ALL Americans to help ease tensions and calm tempers.”

Pelosi named nine Democratic impeachment managers for the trial Tuesday, with Raskin leading the team that will seek to prosecute Trump.

The House on Wednesday impeached President Donald Trump for a second time, charging him with “incitement of insurrection” for his role in the violent riot by a mob of the US Capitol that left five people dead and terrorised lawmakers as they sought to affirm President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.

The vote to impeach passed the Democratic-controlled House was 232 to 197, with 10 Republicans voting against the president.

The House is expected to immediately send the article of impeachment to the Senate for them to begin the process of holding a trial to determine whether to convict Trump and potentially bar him from ever running for any office again.

However, it is unlikely that the trial will begin before the Senate plans to reconvene on January 19th, just one day before Biden is sworn into office.

Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, a member of the GOP leadership, was the highest ranking Republican to vote to impeach Trump.

She was joined by John Katko of New York, Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, Fred Upton of Michigan, Peter Meijer of Michigan, Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio, Tom Rice of South Carolina, David Valadao of California, and Jaime Herrera Beutler and Dan Newhouse of Washington.

No House Republican voted to impeach Trump during the inquiry earlier in his term that resulted in a Senate acquittal.

“Those insurrectionists were not patriots. They were not part of a political base to be catered to or managed. They were domestic terrorists and justice must prevail,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on the House floor, kicking off two hours of debate before the final vote was held.

“But they did not appear out of a vacuum. They were sent here, sent here by the president, with words such as a cry to ‘fight like hell’.

“The president saw the insurrectionists not as the foes of freedom, as they are, but as the means to a terrible goal: the goal of him personally clinging to power.”

Many House Republicans argued during debate that Trump was not afforded due process and that the impeachment process was rushed. Some said that impeaching the president for a second time would only further divide the country while others maintained that Trump’s actions on January 6th did not meet the legal standard for incitement.

“I believe impeaching the president in such a short timeframe would be a mistake,” Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California, the top House Republican, said during debate.

“No investigations have been completed. No hearings have been held,” he added. “A vote to impeach will further fan the flames of partisan division.”

Other Republicans cried hypocrisy, criticizing Democrats for their support for the Black Lives Matter protests that swept the country last summer.

“For months, our cities burned, police stations burned, our businesses were shattered, and they said nothing,” said Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla. “Some have cited the metaphor that the president lit the flame. Well, they lit actual flames.”

It is unclear what will happen in the Senate once the trial begins. Although Trump is likely to have already left office by then, a vote to convict Trump could still bar him from holding federal office again.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told his Republican colleagues Wednesday afternoon that he remains undecided on whether he will vote to convict the president.

“While the press has been full of speculation, I have not made a final decision on how I will vote and I intend to listen to the legal arguments when they are presented to the Senate,” McConnell wrote in a letter to his colleagues.

The impeachment vote follows a House vote late Tuesday night to formally call on Vice President Mike Pence to use the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office.

The act, which was largely symbolic, passed the House 223 to 205 along partisan lines with Kinzinger as the sole Republican to vote in favor of the measure.

Pence, who was one of the targets of the violent mob that attacked the Capitol last week, informed Pelosi shortly before the vote that he would not invoke the 25th Amendment, writing in a letter to the speaker that he didn’t believe “such a course of action is in the best interest of our nation or consistent with our Constitution.”

As the House debated the article of impeachment, Trump, unable to tweet about the process as he did when the House impeached him in December 2019 after Twitter banned his account last week, released a statement urging that “there must be NO violence, NO lawbreaking and NO vandalism of any kind.”

“That is not what I stand for, and it is not what America stands for. I call on ALL Americans to help ease tensions and calm tempers.”

Pelosi named nine Democratic impeachment managers for the trial Tuesday, with Raskin leading the team that will seek to prosecute Trump.

-NBC News