Trump is impeached after riot at Capitol
He’s first president to face sanction for second time
DONALD Trump last night became the first US president to be impeached for a second time.
A majority of the House of Representatives voted in favour on the grounds of “incitement of insurrection”.
The move came just a week after Trump told supporters to “fight like hell” against the presidential election results in a speech that was followed by a mob of his backers storming the US Capitol.
A police officer died from injuries suffered in the riot and officers shot and killed a woman during the siege.
During last night’s debate, House speaker Nancy Pelosi asked Republicans and Democrats to “search their souls”.
Pelosi called Trump a “clear and present danger to the nation we all love”.
However, it is unlikely Trump will be removed from office before the January 20 inauguration of president-elect Joe Biden after Mitch McConnell – the leader of the Republican majority in the upper house the Senate – said the chamber would not be brought back immediately.
That means a Senate trial to decide whether to convict Trump could not start until at least January 19.
But McConnell did not rule out voting to convict him in the event of a trial. He told fellow Republican senators: “I have not made a final decision on how I will vote and I intend to listen to the legal arguments when they are presented to the Senate.”
While Trump’s first impeachment in 2019 got no Republican support, several in the party have broken ranks to say they will join the Democrats this time.
It’s claimed McConnell sees impeachment as a chance to reduce Trump’s hold on the party.
He called major Republican donors last weekend to gauge their thinking and was told that the president had clearly crossed a line.