Trump impeached again, this time for inciting insurrection. What can happen next?
The U.S. House of Representatives voted Wednesday to impeach President Donald Trump for inciting an insurrection at the Capitol, the first time a U.S. president has been impeached twice.
Ten Republicans voted to impeach Trump, with all Democrats in favor. No House Republicans voted in favor when Trump was impeached in 2019 on accusations of leveraging U.S. aid to pressure Ukrainian officials to investigate President-elect Joe Biden.
The vote — which passed 232 to 197 — comes one week after a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol left five people dead.
Before last week’s attack, Trump spoke outside the White House at what he billed as a “Save America Rally,” where he continued his false claims that the election was stolen from him and encouraged his supporters to march to the Capitol.
“All of us here today do not want to see our election victory stolen by bold and radical left Democrats, which is what they are doing, and stolen by the fake news media,” Trump said during that rally.
“That is what they have done and what they are doing. We will never give up. We will never concede. It doesn’t happen. You don’t concede when there’s theft involved,” he continued.
Rioters later breached the Capitol, delaying Congress’ certification of the Electoral College results, and causing evacuations in the House and Senate, in addition to the deaths.
In 2019, Trump became just the third president to be impeached. He was acquitted by the U.S. Senate in February 2020.
The new article of impeachment was introduced by Democratic Reps. Ted Lieu of California, David Cicilline of Rhode Island and Jamie Raskin of Maryland on Monday. The resolution says that Trump has “demonstrated that he will remain a threat to national security, democracy and the Constitution if allowed to remain in office, and has acted in a manner grossly incompatible with self-governance and the rule of law.”
“President Trump thus warrants impeachment and trial, removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States,” the resolution states.
The Republicans who voted in favor of impeaching Trump include: Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio, John Katko of New York, Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, Peter Meijer of Michigan, Tom Rice of South Carolina, Fred Upton of Michigan, Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington, Dan Newhouse of Washington, and David Valadao of California.
A simple majority in the House is required to impeach Trump but convicting and removing him from office requires a two-thirds majority vote in the Senate — which is unlikely since the chamber is currently controlled by the GOP. The Senate is in recess until Jan. 19 and all 100 senators would have to agree to a schedule change, meaning a trial before inauguration is a long shot.
The articles of impeachment could be withheld until Democrats have a majority in the Senate, which will happen when incoming U.S. Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, who won their Georgia runoff races last week, are sworn in and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, who will serve as a tiebreaker when necessary, takes office. The Senate will be split 50-50 between Republicans and Democrats.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Wednesday after the impeachment vote that “there is simply no chance that a fair or serious trial” could happen before Biden is sworn in as president. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said on Wednesday that the House intends to send the article of impeachment to the Senate as soon as “this week.”
If the Senate votes to convict Trump — which could happen after he leaves office — separate measures will need to pass in order to strip him of benefits given to former presidents and bar him from running for president or any other federal office again.
The House passed a resolution Tuesday calling on Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office. The amendment allows the vice president and Cabinet members to declare a president unable to perform the duties of office, thereby stripping the president of power.
Pence said in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that he won’t invoke the amendment and that he didn’t think it was “in the best interest of our nation or consistent with our Constitution.”
Trump has made baseless allegations of widespread voter fraud and challenged the results of the election for months.
In a phone call released by The Washington Post last week, Trump pressured Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes” needed to overturn Biden’s victory in the state.
Trump finally acknowledged two months after the election that “a new administration would take office Jan. 20” in a video statement that made no mention of Biden. Trump said he’s ready to “get on with the business of America” and advocated for an “orderly and seamless” transition.
Trump later called the impeachment proceedings a “witch hunt” on Tuesday and denied responsibility for the violence at the Capitol riots.
“People thought what I said was totally appropriate,” Trump told reporters.
Just before the impeachment vote on Wednesday, Trump released a statement urging calm.
“In light of reports of more demonstrations, I urge that there must be NO violence, NO lawbreaking and NO vandalism of any kind,” the statement from Trump read. “That is not what I stand for, and it is not what America stands for. I call on ALL Americans to help ease tensions and calm tempers.”
This story was originally published January 13, 2021 at 3:23 PM with the headline "Trump impeached again, this time for inciting insurrection. What can happen next?."