Impeachment looms
WASHINGTON: With at least five Republicans joining the push to impeach US President Donald Trump, Democrats in the House of Representatives stand poised for a historymaking vote to try to remove the president from office.
The House votes today on an article of impeachment accusing the Republican president of inciting insurrection in a speech to his followers last week before a mob of them stormed the Capitol, leaving five dead.
Democrats advanced on an impeachment vote after Vicepresident Mike Pence rejected a House resolution passed 223 votes to 205, seeking to persuade him to invoke the 25th Amendment of the Constitution to remove Trump.
‘‘I do not believe that such a course of action is in the best interest of our nation or consistent with our constitution,’’ Pence said in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Trump’s grip on his party showed further signs of slipping as several Republicans, including a member of the House leadership, said they would vote for his second impeachment.
Representative Liz Cheney,the No 3 House Republican, said: ‘‘There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution.’’
Trump had ‘‘summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack’’ on the Capitol, Cheney said, adding she would vote to impeach.
Other Republican House members — John Katko, Adam Kinzinger, Fred Upton and Jaime Herrera Beutler — also said they would do so. Republican leaders said the vote was a matter of individual conscience.
In his first public appearance since last week’s riot, Trump yesterday showed no contrition for his speech before the storming, in which he repeated his false claim that Presidentelect Joe Biden’s victory was illegitimate and urged supporters to march on the Capitol.
‘‘What I said was totally appropriate,’’ Trump told reporters.
Democratic Representative David Cicilline said the impeachment drive had the support of 217 representatives, enough to impeach Trump.
Republican majority leader Mitch McConnell was said to be pleased about the impeachment push.