Mike Dorning, Erik Wasson and Billy House | Bloomberg
The United States House prepared to vote for a second historic impeachment for Donald Trump, as lawmakers boiled over his role prompting the crowd’s attack on the Capitol last week and the president’s once-firm control over the Republican Party began to crumble.
Trump’s impeachment seemed inevitable in a vote Democrats anticipated would take place on Wednesday, with the resolution’s sponsors claiming broad support from Democrats and the public of several Republicans, including Liz Cheney, the Republican Party’s third leader and daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney.
The House debate is scheduled for shortly after 9 am, with the vote on the expected mid-afternoon impeachment resolution, according to House Rules President Jim McGovern. According to the rules in force because of the coronavirus pandemic, members will vote for staggered groups in the plenary of the Chamber, and some by proxy, concluding before 5 pm.
Majority leader in the House, Steny Hoyer, said on Tuesday that the impeachment article would be sent quickly to the Senate, which would then hold a trial, instead of holding it until the beginning of President-elect Joe Biden’s term.
“The moment has been imposed on us by the actions of the President of the United States. The fact that he is leaving should not prevent us from blaming behavior that many of us believe is traitorous and criminal behavior, ”said Hoyer on MSNBC.
Biden Nominees
The timing could complicate Biden’s efforts to get cabinet officials approved by the Senate, as lawmakers would be occupied by an impeachment trial.
But Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer has raised the possibility of invoking a 2004 emergency session law to convene a trial this week, although such a move requires the consent of majority leader Mitch McConnell.
Regardless of whether or not he was convicted in the Senate, a second impeachment would further tarnish a presidency that culminated in a frightening attack on the historic center of American democracy. It also opened up fissures in the Republican Party that portend a power struggle over its future.
The New York Times reported that McConnell told associates that he is particularly pleased with the impeachment, calculating that it will make it easier to purge the party from Trump’s influence.
Many Republicans, however, have argued that Trump’s impeachment would only worsen divisions in the country.
South Carolina’s Nancy Mace, elected in November, said the impeachment “throws gasoline on the fire.”
“Both parties need to take a break and take a deep breath,” Mace told reporters on Capitol Hill. “We need to have a peaceful transition of power and start over.”
Mace was not among the 138 Republicans who voted on January 6 to reject the Biden Electoral College’s victory in at least one state, even after the crowd seeking to overturn the election stormed the building. Many of them also made calls for unity.
Moving away
Much of the corporate establishment that has long financed the Republican Party has been repelled by the insurrection. Over the weekend, top-tier companies began a torrent of announcements that they would at least temporarily cut contributions to lawmakers who joined Trump in false allegations of electoral fraud and in an attempt to block the results of the November 3 election.
If McConnell does not agree to a faster deadline, the quickest any trial can begin on January 20, the day of the inauguration.
Law scholars are divided on whether Trump can be tried as soon as he leaves office. Even so, the prospects for a conviction remained uncertain. With a two-thirds vote required, at least 17 Republicans would have to break away from Trump, who still has fervent followers among Republican voters.
Trump could be legally banned from taking federal office again if found guilty. He also faces potential criminal and civil risks for encouraging his supporters before the January 6 riot, in which five people died and many were injured.
Increased anxiety
Lawmakers returned to Washington for impeachment with growing concerns about their security, while right-wing activists mobilized on the Internet for new potential attacks. Authorities sent a reminder on Tuesday that lawmakers can be reimbursed for the purchase of bulletproof vests. The National Guard troops in combat uniforms were along a newly constructed 2.10 meter non-scalable metal fence around the Capitol.
Although broken windows, broken furniture and other physical damage have been repaired or removed, psychological wounds are still open between lawmakers, their officials and the Capitol Police. A police officer on duty during the riot died of suicide over the weekend. Lawmakers have fresh memories of how they took shelter in locked committee rooms and bunkers in the basement for hours while waiting for help.
The scale of the violence has become clearer as the criminal investigation proceeds, with police officers at a news conference on Tuesday describing periods of hand-to-hand combat with police and organized gangs attacking the media. “People will be shocked by some of the blatant behavior that took place inside the capital,” said District Attorney General of Columbia Michael Sherwin, citing videos and testimonies from witnesses that have not yet been released.
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York said during an Instagram Live on Tuesday night that she thought she would die while the crowd roamed the Capitol. “I didn’t know if I could make it through that day alive – and not just in a general sense, but also in a very, very specific sense,” she said.
Trump showed no regret on the eve of the impeachment vote, telling reporters on leaving the White House on Tuesday for a trip to Texas that he had done nothing wrong and his rhetoric at a rally before the riot in which he instigated his supporters to Capitol was “totally appropriate”. Instead, he condemned Democrats for an impeachment process that he said was causing “tremendous anger”.
Vice President Mike Pence late on Tuesday rejected a House ultimatum to join a cabinet majority to remove Trump from office under a provision in the U.S. Constitution to oust a president who is no longer able to serve. A House resolution passed Tuesday night called for the measure to prevent impeachment.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi then appointed nine Democratic lawmakers led by Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland as managers of the impeachment process.
A week later, impeachment
The move to punish Trump was swift, with the impeachment vote taking place just a week after the turmoil and a sharp contrast to his latest impeachment, due to threats to withhold US support for Ukraine unless his government agreed to the demands of open an investigation to spot Bidenat Joe Biden.
No House Republicans voted to impeach Trump in 2019 and he was acquitted by the Senate in 2020. In addition to Cheney, four other Republican members of the House – John Katko of New York, Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, Fred Upton of Michigan and Jaime Herrera Beutler Washington also said on Tuesday that it would support impeachment this time. Most likely they will come.
Trump would become the only president twice accused by the House. Only two predecessors, Bill Clinton and Andrew Johnson, were impeached and both were acquitted. Richard Nixon resigned instead of facing certain impeachment and sentencing in the Senate for the Watergate scandal.
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