IMPEACHED AGAIN
HOUSE CHARGES TRUMP WITH “INCITEMENT OF INSURRECTION”
10 Republicans join Democrats in finding Trump egged on the violent mob that stormed the Capitol last week. GOP leader McConnell may support the effort in the Senate as a means of purging his party of Trump.
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 militarized against threats from pro-Trump activists and adorned with bunting for the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, lawmakers voted 232-197 to approve a single impeachment article. It accused 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 his 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 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, threemonth process to impeach Trump the first time for a pressure campaign on Ukraine to incriminate Biden — a case rejected by the president’s unfailingly loyal Republican supporters — Pelosi had moved this time with little fanfare 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 later, “It gives me no pleasure to say this — it breaks my heart.”
The top House Republican, Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California, conceded in a pained speech
on the floor that Trump had been to blame for the assault at the Capitol. It had forced the vice president and lawmakers who had gathered to formalize 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 McCarthy, one of the 138 Republicans who returned to the House floor after the mayhem and voted to reject certified electoral votes for Biden. “He should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding.”
Outside the House chamber, a remarkable tableau offered reminders of the rampage that gave rise to the impeachment, as thousands of armed, camouflage-clad members of the National Guard ringed the Capitol and lined its halls, their weapons, helmets and backpacks stacked seemingly in every corner of the complex. Their presence gave the proceedings a wartime feel and evoked images of the 1860s, when the Union Army had quartered in the building.
The House’s action set the stage for the second Senate trial of the president in a year. The precise timing of that proceeding remained in doubt, though, as senators appeared unlikely to convene to sit in judgment before Jan. 20, when Biden will take the oath of office and Trump will become a former president.
The last proceeding was a partisan affair.
But this time, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, was said to support the effort as a means of purging his party of Trump, setting up a political and constitutional showdown that could shape the course of American politics.
If a Senate trial resulted in Trump’s conviction, it held out the prospect, tantalizing for Democrats and many Republicans alike, of barring Trump from holding office again.
In a measured statement after the vote, Biden called for the nation to come together after an “unprecedented assault on our democracy.” He was staring down the likelihood that the trial would complicate his first days in office and said he hoped Senate leadership would “find a way to deal with their constitutional responsibilities on impeachment while also working on the other urgent business of this nation.” That work included Cabinet nominations and confronting the pandemic.
In the House, Democrats and Republicans who supported his ouster made no attempt to hide their fury at Trump, who was said to have enjoyed watching the attack play out on television as lawmakers pleaded for help. Republicans harangued members of their own party for supporting his mendacious campaign to cling to claim election victory.
Returning to the same chamber where many of them donned gas masks and hid under chairs amid gunfire one week ago, as rioters
carrying zip ties and chanting “hang Pence” and “where’s Nancy” overtook police, lawmakers issued stinging indictments of the president and his party.
“They may have been hunting for Pence and Pelosi to stage their coup,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the lead impeachment prosecutor, “but every one of us in this room right now could have died.”
Five people did die during the attack, including an officer and a member of the mob who was shot just outside the chamber door.
Lawmakers, on edge about the state of the country, said the threat from Trump had not subsided.
“He is capable of starting a civil war,” Rep. Maxine Waters of California, a liberal veteran, said.
After four years of nearly unquestioning alliance with him, few Republicans defended Trump’s actions outright.
Those who did resorted to a familiar set of false equivalencies, pointing to racial justice protests over the summer that turned violent, and accusations that Democrats had mistreated the president and were trying to stifle the 74 million Americans who voted for him.
“It’s always been about getting the president, no matter what,” Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, shot across the room at Democrats. “It’s an obsession, an obsession that has now broadened. It’s not just about impeachment anymore; it’s about canceling, as I’ve said. Canceling the president and anyone that disagrees with them.”
Overhanging the proceedings was the deadly pandemic, which is killing 3,000 Americans a day. A handful of lawmakers were infected, as well, after the chaotic evacuation of the Capitol, as many Republican lawmakers refused to wear masks in the secure rooms where they huddled for safety. Fearful of exposing colleagues or of putting themselves at risk to the dual health and security threats, dozens of lawmakers cast their votes remotely by proxy.
Far from contrite, Trump insisted in the run-up to the vote that his words to loyalists swarming Washington last week had been appropriate. In the days since, he has repeated lies that the election was stolen from him. He denounced the impeachment as part of the years-long “witch hunt” against him but had taken no apparent steps to put together a legal team to defend him when he stands trial.
Not long after the vote, Trump released a video condemning the violence and urging his followers to avoid a repeat in “the coming days both here in Washington and across the country” as federal authorities warned of a nationwide wave of violence surrounding Biden’s inauguration. But he did not mention his own role in instigating the violence or apologize; nor did he concede or mention Biden’s name.
The president recorded the video under pressure from aides, who have warned him that he faces potential legal exposure for the riot, which took place after a speech in which he urged supporters to “fight” the results of the election.
It also came after McConnell had released a note to Republican senators in which he did not deny that he backed the impeachment push. The leader said that he had “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.”
He also issued a separate statement in which he rejected a plea by Democrats to agree to begin the proceeding immediately. After the House vote, McConnell said there was “simply no chance that a fair or serious trial could conclude” before the inauguration.
“I believe it will best serve our nation if Congress and the executive branch spend the next seven days completely focused on facilitating a safe inauguration and an orderly transfer of power to the incoming Biden administration,” the Senate Republican leader said.
The statement did not mention the merits of the case, but privately, McConnell was seething at Trump, whom he has sworn he will not speak to again, and is said to believe he committed impeachable offenses. It would most likely take 17 Republicans joining Democrats to convict Trump, an exceedingly high bar.
Tom Rice of South Carolina, who represents a safely Republican seat, said he had “backed this president through thick and thin for four years.”
He added: “I campaigned for him and voted for him twice. But, this utter failure is inexcusable.”