WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump was impeached by the United States House for the second historic time on Wednesday, accused of “inciting insurrection” due to the crowd’s deadly siege of Capitol Hill, in a rapid and impressive collapse of his last days in office. .
With the Capitol secured by armed National Guard troops inside and outside, the House voted 232-197 for Trump’s impeachment. The process has moved forward at lightning speed, with lawmakers voting just a week after violent pro-Trump supporters invaded the United States Capitol, prompted by the president’s calls for them to “fight like hell” against the election results.
Ten Republicans fled Trump, joining Democrats who said he needed to be held accountable and warned menacingly about a “clear and present danger” if Congress left him out of control before Democrat Joe Biden took office on January 20.
Trump is the only U.S. president to suffer two impeachment cases.
The Capitol uprising surprised and angered lawmakers, who were sent in search of security as the crowd descended, and revealed the fragility of the nation’s history of peaceful transfers of power. The riot also forced a reckoning among some Republicans, who stood by Trump during his presidency and largely allowed him to spread false attacks against the integrity of the 2020 election.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi invoked Abraham Lincoln and the Bible, pleading with lawmakers to keep their oath to defend the Constitution from all enemies, foreigners “and domestic”.
She said of Trump: “He must go, he is a clear and present danger to the nation that we all love.”
Hiding in the White House, watching the proceedings on TV, Trump took no responsibility for the bloody turmoil seen around the world, but issued a statement calling for “NO violence, NO violation of the law and NO vandalism of any kind” to stop the rise of Biden to the White House.
In the face of accusations against him and with the FBI warning of more violence, Trump said: “This is not what I stand for and it is not what the United States stands for. I appeal to ALL Americans to help ease tensions and calm tempers. “
Trump was first accused by the House in 2019 because of his negotiations with Ukraine, but the Senate voted in 2020 for absolution. He is the first to be charged twice. None were condemned by the Senate, but Republicans said on Wednesday that this could change in the rapidly changing political environment as office holders, donors, large companies and others move away from the defeated president.
As soon as possible, Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell will start an impeachment trial next Tuesday, the day before Trump left the White House, McConnell’s office said. The legislation also aims to prevent Trump from working again.
McConnell believes Trump has committed impeachable offenses and sees impeachment by Democrats as an opportunity to reduce the president’s chaotic and divisive control over the Republican Party, a Republican strategist told the Associated Press on Wednesday.
McConnell told top donors over the weekend that he ended Trump, said the strategist, who demanded anonymity to describe McConnell’s conversations.
In a note to colleagues on Wednesday, McConnell said he “has not made a final decision on how I will vote”.
Unlike his first time, Trump faces this impeachment as a weakened leader, having lost his own re-election, as well as the Republican majority in the Senate.
Even Trump’s ally Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leader of the House, changed his position and said on Wednesday that the president is responsible for the horrific day on Capitol Hill.
In defending the “serious crimes and misdemeanors” required in the Constitution, the four-page impeachment resolution passed on Wednesday is based on Trump’s own incendiary rhetoric and the falsehoods he spread about Biden’s electoral victory, including at a rally near the White House on the day of the January 6 attack on the Capitol.
A Capitol Police officer died of injuries sustained in the rebellion, and police shot and killed a woman during the siege. Three other people died in what the authorities said were medical emergencies. The riot delayed the counting of votes from the Electoral College, which was the last step to finalize Biden’s victory.
Ten Republican lawmakers, including Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the Republican Party’s third leader, voted for Trump’s impeachment, dividing the Republican leadership and the party itself.
Cheney, whose father is the former Republican vice president, said of Trump’s actions in summoning the crowd that “there has never been a greater betrayal by a president” in his office.
Trump would have been livid with McConnell and Cheney’s perception of disloyalty.
With the team around Trump emptied and his Twitter account silenced by the social media company, the president was deeply frustrated that he could not fight back, according to White House officials and Republicans close to the West Wing who were not allowed to speak publicly. about private conversations.
From the White House, Trump relied on Sen. Lindsey Graham, of South Carolina, to pressure Republican senators to resist, while Chief of Staff Mark Meadows called some of his former colleagues on Capitol Hill.
The president’s strong popularity with constituents of Republican lawmakers still had some influence, and most House Republicans voted against impeachment.
Security was exceptionally tight on the Capitol, with tall fences around the complex. The screening of the metal detector was necessary for lawmakers entering the Chamber of Deputies, where, a week earlier, lawmakers huddled while the police, with weapons drawn, protected the door of the protesters.
“We are debating this historic measure at the crime scene,” said Representative Jim McGovern, D-Mass.
During the debate, some Republicans repeated Trump’s falsehoods about the election and argued that the president had been treated unfairly by Democrats since the day he took office.
Other Republicans argued that the impeachment was a foregone hoax and complained about a double standard applied to their supporters, but not to the liberal left. Some simply called for the nation to move on.
Representative Tom McClintock of California said: “Every movement has a lunatic fringe.”
However, Democratic Representative Jason Crow, D-Colo. and others reported the harrowing day when rioters knocked on the chamber door trying to break in. Some called it an attempted “coup”.
Congresswoman Maxine Waters, D-Calif., Said that Trump was “capable of starting a civil war”.
Trump’s sentencing and removal would require a two-thirds vote in the Senate, which will be divided equally. Republican Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania joined Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska over the weekend to ask Trump to “leave as soon as possible.”
Moving away from concerns that an impeachment trial would hinder his early days in office, Biden is encouraging senators to split their time between assuming their priorities of confirming their nominees and approving the relief from COVID-19 while also conducting the trial.
The impeachment project is based on Trump’s false statements about his defeat in the Biden elections. Judges across the country, including some nominated by Trump, have repeatedly rejected cases challenging the election results, and former Attorney General William Barr, a Trump ally, said there was no sign of widespread fraud.
The House first tried to persuade Vice President Mike Pence and the Cabinet to invoke his authority under the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office. Pence refused to do so, but the House passed the resolution anyway.
The impeachment bill also details Trump’s pressure on state officials in Georgia to “find” more votes for him.
While some question the impeachment of the president so close to the end of his term, there are precedents. In 1876, under Ulysses Grant, War Secretary William Belknap was impeached by the House on the day he resigned, and the Senate called for a trial months later. He was acquitted.
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Associated Press writers Kevin Freking, Andrew Taylor and Zeke Miller contributed to this report.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Returns to her leadership role after opening the debate on the impeachment of President Donald Trump, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, January 13, 2021, the House of Representatives Representatives are seeking an impeachment article against Trump for his role in inciting an angry crowd to invade the Capitol last week. (AP Photo / J. Scott Applewhite)
Hundreds of National Guard soldiers detained inside the Capitol Visitors Center to reinforce Capitol security in Washington, Wednesday, January 13, 2021. The House of Representatives is seeking an impeachment article against President Donald Trump for his role in inciting an angry mob to invade the Capitol last week. (AP Photo / J. Scott Applewhite)
Rep. Vicky Hartzler, R-Mo., And Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Fla., Deliver pizzas to members of the National Guard meeting at the Capitol Visitors Center, Wednesday, January 13, 2021, in Washington . while the House of Representatives continues its swift House vote to impeach President Donald Trump, a week after a crowd of Trump supporters invaded the U.S. Capitol. (AP Photo / Manuel Balce Ceneta)
President Donald Trump speaks to the media before boarding Marine One on the south lawn of the White House, Tuesday, January 12, 2021 in Washington. The president is traveling to Texas. (AP Photo / Gerald Herbert)
ARCHIVE – In this December 17, 2019 archive photo, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., Speaks to reporters at the Capitol in Washington. A growing divide among Republicans over President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the election comes prominently in Wyoming, the state that has delivered Trump’s highest prevailing margin by far. Eleven Republican senators saying they will not vote on Wednesday, January 6, 2021, to confirm President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, include newly sworn senator Cynthia Lummis by Wyoming, a Cheyenne area farmer and former congressman. Vocal opponents of such a move include Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, GOP messaging leader in the House as her third-tier Republican (AP Photo / J. Scott Applewhite, Archives)
National Guard members are inside an anti-escalation fence surrounding the Capitol complex on Sunday, January 10, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo / Alan Fram)
National Guard members protect the perimeter around the Capitol, Wednesday, January 13, 2021, in Washington, while the House of Representatives continues its House vote to impeach President Donald Trump, a week after a crowd of Trump supporters broke into the US Capitol. (AP Photo / Manuel Balce Ceneta)