House plans impeachment
WASHINGTON — House leaders set plans in motion to impeach President
Donald Trump for a second time, with a vote as early as Wednesday, as President-elect Joe Biden and congressional leaders huddled over how to carry out a Senate trial later this month without derailing the new administration’s agenda.
Democrats said they’re confident they have the votes needed to pass the article of impeachment introduced
Monday by Reps. David Cicilline, D-R.I., Ted Lieu, D-calif., and Jamie Raskin, D-MD. It has only one charge: “incitement of insurrection.”
“Donald John Trump engaged in high crimes and misdemeanors by willfully inciting violence against the government of the United States,” the article reads.
“He threatened the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful transition of power, and imperiled a coordinate branch of government. He thereby
betrayed his trust as president, to the manifest injury of the people of the United States.”
With 213 Democratic House members signing on as co-sponsors by Monday morning and more promising to vote for it, impeachment is assured.
A handful of GOP members, including Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-ill., and Rep. Peter Meijer, R-mich., indicated they’re considering removing the president from office. Others have blasted the Democrats’ effort as divisive.
“We must come together to heal our nation, but House Democrats’ latest attempts to remove the president from office will further divide us,” said Rep. Tom Emmer, R-minn., chairman of the House Republican campaign arm. “It is a politically motivated effort by (Speaker)
Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats that will fracture our nation even
more instead of bringing us together.”
Prospects for a Senate trial, however, are far less clear. Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell, R-KY., told fellow senators last week that under the chamber’s rules, starting a trial before the inauguration would require unanimous agreement, a near impossibility.
Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., who will become majority leader Jan. 20, is exploring whether to use emergency powers to reconvene the Senate to allow for a trial to begin immediately after the impeachment article is sent to the Senate.
Under an emergency rule approved after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the top two leaders — currently Schumer and Mcconnell — can approve reopening the Senate. While Mcconnell is unlikely to go along, the move would increase the pressure on him to do so.
Even if Trump already has left office, a conviction could lead to his being barred from running
again, although that would require a second Senate vote. Several Senate Republicans have spoken out in anger at Trump’s role in last week’s violence. A trial held after Trump leaves office could mitigate GOP concerns about removing a duly elected president from office. But how many of them would join Democrats in voting to convict Trump remains unknown.
The problem for Biden is that those proceedings will take time. Already he seems likely to take office without his top Cabinet officials confirmed, breaking a decades-long tradition of getting at least some top national security officials in place from the opening moments of a new administration. Republicans, who will continue to chair Senate committees until the Democrats take the majority on Inauguration Day, have not scheduled hearings for the vast majority of Biden’s nominees.
On Friday, Biden expressed concern that
a Senate trial could interfere with confirming his nominees and moving forward on the new COVID-19 relief and economic stimulus package he plans. Over the weekend, one of his closest congressional allies, Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina, floated the idea that if the House impeached Trump, Pelosi could wait 100 days to send the impeachment resolution to the Senate for trial in order to clear the way for Biden’s priorities.
That drew strong opposition from other House Democrats, and on Monday, Biden publicly backed away from it.
The Homeland Security Department announced Monday that heightened security for the inaugural would begin Wednesday rather than next week as planned. Not long after, it was announced that acting Homeland Secretary Chad Wolf was stepping down.
Five people died in Wednesday’s attack on the Capitol, including one Trump supporter who was shot by an
officer while she took part in trying to break down the door of the House chamber, and a Capitol Police officer who was reportedly clubbed with a fire extinguisher during a confrontation with the mob. The attack delayed for several hours Congress’ formal counting of electoral votes that confirmed Biden’s victory.