Republicans deeply divided over Trump as Senate trial looms

WASHINGTON. – US Republicans in Congress are deeply divided after 10 members split with their party to impeach President Donald Trump on Wednesday.

Congresswoman Liz Cheney, the third ranking House Republican, is facing calls to resign her party leadership role after her vote to impeach.

The lawmakers who voted against Mr Trump face threats of violence, and have increased security, they say.

It comes as Mr Trump prepares to leave office and faces a trial in the Senate.

The House of Representatives voted by 232 votes to 197 on Wednesday to impeach him for allegedly inciting rioters who stormed the Capitol last week.

The FBI has warned of possible armed protests planned for Washington DC and all 50 US state capitals in the run- up to Democratic President- elect Joe Biden’s inauguration on Wednesday.

Cheney, a Wyoming congresswoman whose father was vice-president to Republican George W Bush, faced immediate calls to resign after voting to impeach Trump for inciting insurrection against the US government.

“I’m not going anywhere. This is a vote of conscience,” said Cheney, after Trump’s conservative defenders in Congress called for her to quit.

“It’s one where there are different views in our conference. But our nation is facing an unprecedented, since the Civil War, constitutional crisis,” she told reporters on Wednesday, as Trump was impeached for a historic second time.

Another Republican has said he and several colleagues have purchased body armour and have been forced to change their normal routines after receiving threats of violence.

“It’s sad that we have to get to that point, but you know our expectation is that someone may try to kill us,” Michigan Republican Peter Meijer told MSNBC on Thursday.

“We don’t know what’s going to happen next. We weren’t expecting for the Capitol to get overrun for the first time in 200 years,” he said.

“And so in this unprecedented environment with an unprecedented degree of fear, of divisiveness and hatred, we have to account for every scenario.”