Trump impeached over Capitol invasion
Sets stage for Senate trial showdown
WASHINGTON: Donald Trump on Wednesday became the first American president to be impeached twice, as 10 members of his party joined with Democrats in the House to charge him with “incitement of insurrection” for his role in egging on a violent mob that stormed the Capitol last week.
Reconvening in a building now heavily militarised against threats from proTrump activists and adorned with bunting for the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, lawmakers voted 232-197 to approve a single impeachment charge.
It accused Mr Trump of “inciting violence against the government of the United States” in his quest to overturn the election results and called for him to be removed and disqualified from ever holding public office again.
The vote left another indelible stain on Mr Trump’s presidency just a week before he is slated to leave office and laid bare the cracks running through the Republican Party. More members of his party voted to charge the president than in any other impeachment.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, declaring the past week one of the darkest chapters in American history, implored her colleagues to embrace “a constitutional remedy that will ensure that the republic will be safe from this man who is so resolutely determined to tear down the things that we hold dear and that hold us together”.
A little more than a year after she led a painstaking, three-month process to impeach Mr Trump the first time for a pressure campaign on Ukraine to incriminate Mr Biden — a case rejected by the president’s unfailingly loyal Republican supporters — Ms Pelosi moved swiftly this time to do the same job in only seven days.
“He must go. He is a clear and present danger to the nation that we all love,” the speaker said, adding: “It gives me no pleasure to say this — it breaks my heart.”
The top House Republican, Kevin McCarthy of California, conceded that Mr Trump had been to blame for the invasion, saying it had forced the vice-president and lawmakers who had gathered there to formalise Mr Biden’s victory to flee for their lives in a deadly rampage.
“The president bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by mob rioters,” said Mr McCarthy, one of the 138 Republicans who returned to the House floor after the mayhem and voted to reject certified electoral votes for Mr Biden. “He should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding.”
Outside the House chamber, thousands of armed members of the National Guard in camouflage fatigues surrounded the complex and snaked through its halls, stacking their helmets, backpacks and weapons wherever they went. Their presence gave the proceedings a wartime feel, and evoked images of the 1860s, when the Union Army had moved into the building.
Lawmakers sparred over newly installed metal detectors outside the House chamber meant to stop them from taking guns on to the floor. Some Republicans darted past the machines without stopping, setting off alarms.
Dozens of others stayed away from the Capitol, fearful of exposing colleagues or themselves to the virus and of lingering security threats, instead casting their votes remotely by proxy.
The impeachment vote has set the stage for the second Senate trial of the president in a year. Its precise timing remained uncertain overnight, however, but senators appeared unlikely to sit in judgement before Wednesday, when Mr Biden will take the oath of office.
The last impeachment was a partisan affair but this time, Sen Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, was said to support it so as to purge his party of Mr Trump.
The vote has thus set up a political and constitutional showdown that could shape the course of American politics.
If a Senate trial results in Mr Trump being convicted, it holds out the prospect, tantalising for Democrats and many Republicans alike, of barring him from ever holding office again.
After the vote, Mr Biden called for the nation to unite after an “unprecedented assault on our democracy”.