The House of Representatives voted Wednesday afternoon to
impeach President Donald Trump, charging him with “incitement of
insurrection” and claiming that his rhetoric surrounding the 2020
election roused a mob of his supporters to
storm
the U.S. Capitol last week as Congress convened to certify
President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory.
With the vote, Trump became the only president in United States
history to be impeached for a second time, having now received the
rebuke twice in the span of 13 months.
What are the details?
The resolution was approved by a vote of 232-197 after all
Democratic members of the House and 10 Republicans voted in favor
of impeaching the president.
House Democratic lawmakers
introduced the single article of impeachment earlier this week,
declaring that Trump “engaged in high crimes and misdemeanors by
willfully inciting violence against the Government of the United
States.”
“Incited by President Trump, members of the crowd he had
addressed, in an attempt to, among other objectives, interfere with
the Joint Session’s solemn constitutional duty to certify the
results of the 2020 Presidential election, unlawfully breached and
vandalized the Capitol, injured and killed law enforcement
personnel, menaced Members of Congress, the Vice President and
Congressional personnel, and engaged in other violent, deadly,
destructive, and seditious acts,”
the resolution stated.
“President Trump gravely endangered the security of the United
States and its institutions of Government. He threatened the
integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful
transition of power, and imperiled a coequal branch of Government.
He thereby betrayed his trust as President, to the manifest injury
of the people of the United States,” the resolution added.
What’s the background?
Trump, who has maintained that the 2020 election was fraudulent,
delivered a speech on Jan. 6 to hundreds of thousands of his
supporters who were gathered near the White House to protest the
results of the election. In
the speech, he once again claimed that the election was
“rigged” and instructed his supporters to march over “to the
Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make [their]
voices heard.”
Some of his supporters, however, opted to violently fight with
police, breach security perimeters, and invade the Capitol
building. The riot has resulted in the deaths of at least five
people and injuries to many more.
In the aftermath of the shocking incident, several lawmakers on
Capitol Hill from both parties have pinned blame on Trump for the
violence.
Speaking with reporters Tuesday for the first time since the
incident, Trump slammed the move to impeach him a second time as “a
continuation of the greatest witch hunt in the history of politics”
and defended his speech as “totally appropriate.”
What’s next?
Now that the House has formally impeached the president, the
resolution will be transmitted to the Senate for a trial. However,
it is unclear whether such a trial will ever take place, since
the current Republican-led Senate will not return to session until
Jan. 19, just one day before Trump leaves office.
If the impeachment article is withheld until after Senate
control flips to the Democrats on Jan. 20, a trial could
potentially be held after Trump has already left office.
