Washington – Ten Republican members of the House, including one of its highest-ranking leaders, joined Democrats in the impeachment vote for President Trump for inciting the deadly attack on the Capitol last week by a violent crowd of his supporters.
The final vote was from 232 to 197, as the 10 Republicans joined all 222 Democrats in the vote in favor of the impeachment resolution.
The impeachment article will be handed over to the Senate, where Trump will be put on trial. However, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said after the House vote that “there is simply no chance that a fair or serious trial will be concluded before President-elect Biden’s oath next week.”
Mr. Trump is the first president to be charged twice. When he was impeached in 2019 because of his attempts to pressure Ukraine to investigate Joe and Hunter Biden, no House Republicans voted in favor of his impeachment. But this time, 10 members of their own party determined that their actions justified the impeachment.
Here are the Republicans who voted for Trump’s impeachment:
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Liz Cheney from Wyoming
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Anthony Gonzalez from Ohio
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Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington
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John Katko from New York
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Adam Kinzinger of Illinois
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Peter Meijer from Michigan
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Dan Newhouse from Washington
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Tom Rice of South Carolina
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Fred Upton of Michigan
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David Valadao of California
Cheney, the third Republican in the House, said in a statement on Tuesday that she would vote for Trump’s impeachment after he incited his supporters on Wednesday at a rally not far from Capitol Hill.
“The President of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob and lit the flame of that attack. Everything that followed was his work. None of this would have happened without the President,” said Cheney, referring to Trump’s appearance in a rally on January 6, when he said to his supporters: “If you don’t fight like the devil, you won’t have a country anymore”. She also criticized her repeated calls to Republican lawmakers to try to overturn the election.
“The president could have intervened immediately and with force to stop the violence. He did not. There has never been a greater betrayal by a president of the United States of his office and his oath to the constitution,” said Cheney, daughter of the former vice President Dick Cheney, continued. “I will vote for the president’s impeachment.”
Congressman John Katko was the first Republican to say he would vote for Trump’s impeachment on Tuesday. Katko represents a district in upstate New York that leans towards Democrats, and he faced significant challenges in his last two elections.
“Allowing the President of the United States to incite this attack without consequences is a direct threat to the future of our democracy,” said Katko in a statement released by Syracuse.com. “For that reason, I cannot sit without taking action. I will vote for this president’s impeachment.”
Congressman Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, a frequent critic of Trump, announced on Tuesday in a tweet, “I will vote in favor of impeachment.”
“I have no doubt that the President of the United States broke his oath of office and incited this insurrection. He used his position in the Executive to attack the Legislature … If these actions – Article II of the branch incites a deadly insurrection against the branch Article I – are not worthy of impeachment, so what is an offense liable to impeachment? “
Last week, Kinzinger also called on Vice President Mike Pence and Mr. Trump’s office to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove the president from office.
Congressman Fred Upton of Michigan announced his support for the impeachment on Tuesday night. “I would have preferred a formal bipartisan censorship over an extended impeachment process,” he said in a statement. “But it’s time to say: enough.”
Upton said that Congress should “send a clear message that our country cannot and will not tolerate any effort by any president to prevent the peaceful transfer of power.”
Newhouse said on Wednesday that he would support the impeachment.
“There is no excuse for President Trump’s actions,” Newhouse said in a speech on the House floor, adding that he would vote for impeachment “with a heavy heart.” Democrats applauded after his speech.
Most of the House Republican conference – including minority leader Kevin McCarthy and minority leader Steve Scalise – voted to overturn the results of the Electoral College last week.
Six Republican lawmakers tabled a resolution to censor Trump on Tuesday night. Unlike impeachment, censorship has no practical consequences, but it would have been just a formal conviction.
In the Senate, some senators have also signaled that they may be willing to consider voting to condemn Trump, although the bar is higher in the upper house. Although a simple majority is needed to remove the president from the House, two-thirds of the senators must vote in favor of the president’s sentencing and removal.