Division Caused By Trumpism to Continue Haunting United States

In a heavily fortified US Capitol building, a majority of bipartisan members of the House voted in favour of impeaching President Donald Trump on Wednesday. They accused him of inciting an insurrection last week at the very building in which the lawmakers cast their votes.

Following the 232-197 vote on the single article of impeachment, Mr Trump became the first president in US history to be impeached twice.

What distinguished the second impeachment from the first one, though, was that this time 10 Republicans cast the “yea” vote while none of the House GOP members crossed the party line last time.

Trump impeached again

“The resolution (of impeachment) is adopted. Without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid upon the table,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced while gavelling the vote down.

“I sadly and with a heart broken over what this means to our country, of a president who would incite insurrection, will sign the engrossment of the article of impeachment,” Ms Pelosi said after the vote, speaking behind a lectern which photos showed was removed last week by a rioter from its original place in the House chamber.

In a statement published on Wednesday, President-elect Joe Biden said the riot “carried out by political extremists and domestic terrorists, who were incited to this violence by President Trump” was “an armed insurrection against the United States of America”.

For those Republicans who opposed impeaching Mr Trump, few of them defended the president. They argued instead that the Democrats were rushing to remove the president without due process and at a time when Trump would hand over the presidency to Biden in merely a week.

They accused the Democrats further dividing the country.

Senate trial not expected soon

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With Mr Trump being impeached, all eyes have turned to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who will decide when to hold the Senate trial that will determine the president’s fate.

Mr McConnell, who on Wednesday tried to cool down the heat of previous media reports saying he was pleased with the impeachment and believed it was a good option to purge Mr Trump from the Republican Party, issued a formal statement rejecting an early trial in the Senate, which is now in recess. “The House of Representatives has voted to impeach the President. The Senate process will now begin at our first regular meeting following receipt of the article from the House,” read the statement.