TRUMP IMPEACHED AGAIN
Branded a danger, he becomes first US leader to face a second Senate trial
DONALD Trump last night suffered the ignominy of becoming the first US President to be impeached twice.
Before Mr Trump’s arrival in Washington in 2016, only two leaders – Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton – had been impeached in the history of the United States.
But Mr Trump was accused of ‘high crimes and misdemeanours’ for the second time in just 13 months as he was branded a ‘clear and present danger to the nation’.
By a vote of 232 to 197, the House of Representatives passed a single charge of ‘incitement of insurrection’ against Mr Trump over the storming of the US Capitol last week. Needing just a majority to pass, ten of the President’s Republican party sided with the Democrats to vote against him.
It means he now faces a trial in the Senate. A conviction would mean his removal from office, despite having just six full days of his term left.
Ahead of President- elect Joe Biden’s inauguration next Wednesday, the FBI has warned there could be armed protests in all 50 states. Having been banned from Twitter, his favourite method of communication, Mr Trump put out a statement through the White House last night, saying: ‘In light of reports of more demonstrations, I urge that there must be no violence, no lawbreaking and no vandalism of any kind.
‘That is not what I stand for, and it is not what America stands for. I call on all Americans to help ease tensions and calm tempers.’
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a constant thorn in Mr Trump’s side during his presidency, led the Democrat attack last night by quoting an 1862 Abraham Lincoln address to Congress and the speech John F Kennedy was due to give on the day he was assassinated.
She said Mr Trump was a ‘clear and present danger’ and had brought a ‘ day of fire’ to Capitol Hill last Wednesday. ‘ We cannot escape history,’ she said. ‘We know that the President of the United States incited this insurrection, this armed rebellion. He must go.
‘ The President must be impeached, and I believe the President must be convicted by the Senate, a constitutional remedy that will ensure that the republic will be safe from this man who was so resolutely determined to tear down the things that we hold dear and that hold us together.’
Mrs Pelosi added: ‘Those insurrectionists were not patriots. They were not part of a political base to be catered to and managed. They were domestic terrorists.
‘But they did not appear out of a vacuum, they were sent here by the President with words such as a cry to “fight like hell”.’
But Jim Jordan, a firebrand Republican who was given the Medal of Freedom by Mr Trump last week, said the ‘cancel culture’ was behind the impeachment.
He said: ‘In seven days there will be a peaceful transfer of power just like there has been every other time in our country, but Democrats are going to impeach President Trump again. This doesn’t unite the country. There is no way this helps the nation deal with the tragic and terrible events of last week that we all condemn’.
The historic vote took place in the Capitol where National Guard troops were stationed inside for the first time since the 19th century.
Before the main debate, Jim McGovern, a Massachusetts Democrat, said the hearing was taking place at ‘an actual crime scene’.
Only a week ago, thousands of Mr Trump’s supporters marched to Capitol Hill while Congress certified the election result and Mr Biden as President-elect.
The rioters forced their way into the Capitol building, sending politicians from both sides fleeing as the seat of American democracy was ransacked. The violence left five dead, including a police officer. The FBI has charged 70 people and is investigating hundreds more.
The sombre day took place 13 months after Mr Trump was impeached for asking Ukraine to investigate his political rivals. He was cleared in a Senate trial.
After last night’s vote, the Senate could put Mr Trump on trial as early as next Tuesday, the day before Mr Biden’s inauguration. The Senate vote is split 50-50 between the Republicans and the Democrats, and a two-thirds majority is needed to convict the President.
Before last night’s vote, Tom McClintock, a California Republican, said: ‘If we impeached every politician who gave a fiery speech to a crowd of partisans, this Capitol would be deserted.
‘I cannot think of a more petty, vindictive and gratuitous act to impeach an already defeated president a week before he leaves office.’
Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, fired back that the Capitol riot was ‘the most dangerous moment for our democracy in a century’, ordered by a ‘lawless president’. He added: ‘America has been through a Civil War, world wars, a Great Depression, pandemics, McCarthyism, and now a Trumpist and white nationalist insurrection, and yet our democracy endures.’
New York Democrat Hakeem Jeffries
said Mr Trump was a ‘living, breathing, impeachable offence.’
Washington’s Dan Newhouse was one of several Republicans who voted to impeach, doing so with a ‘heavy heart and clear resolve’.
He added: ‘There is no excuse for President Trump’s actions. The President took an oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
‘Last week, there was a domestic threat at the door of the Capitol, and he did nothing to stop it.’