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There is a strong division among the members of the Republican Party in the United States Parliament (Congress), after 10 of them voted in favor of impeaching President Donald Trump with the aim of impeaching him.
Liz Cheney, the third-most prominent Republican in the House of Representatives, faces calls to resign from her leadership role in the party following her vote to impeach the Republican president.
Lawmakers who voted against Trump say they face threats of violence and have stepped up their personal protection measures.
This occurs as Trump prepares to leave office and face a trial in the Senate.
The House of Representatives voted 232-197 on Wednesday to accuse Trump of inciting the rioters who stormed the Capitol, the seat of Congress, last week.
The FBI warned of possible planned armed protests in Washington, DC and the 50 US state capitals in the lead up to the inauguration of Democratic President-elect Joe Biden on January 20.
Liz Cheney, a congresswoman from Wyoming, and her son, former Republican George W. Bush Vice President Dick Cheney, faced immediate calls to resign after they voted to impeach Trump for inciting a revolt against the US government.
“I’m not going anywhere. This is a vote of conscience,” Cheney said, after Trump’s conservatives called her in Congress to resign.
With the vote to impeach Trump for the second time in a precedent for any American president, Cheney told reporters: “It’s a position where there are different points of view in our (party) conference. But our nation is facing a constitutional crisis unprecedented since the civil war. “
Another Republican said he and several of his colleagues had bought bulletproof shields and had to change their usual activities after receiving threats of violence.
“It’s sad we’re getting to this point, but you know our expectations are that someone tries to kill us,” Republican Peter Major of Michigan told MSNBC on Thursday.
“We don’t know what will happen. We did not expect to invade the Capitol for the first time in 200 years,” he added.
He said: “Therefore, in these unprecedented times, and with an unprecedented degree of fear, division and hatred, we have to prepare for every scenario.”
What happened in the House of Representatives vote?
Members of the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives made statements for and against the vote to impeach Trump within two hours as National Guard forces fanned out in and out of the Capitol building.
Most Republicans did not seek to defend Trump, arguing instead that the impeachment vote bypassed the usual hearings and called on Democrats to drop the issue to preserve national unity.
“To impeach the president in such a short time would be a mistake,” said Kevin McCarthy, the top Republican in the House of Representatives.
He added: “This does not mean that the president has done nothing wrong. The president is responsible for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by the rioters.”
What did Trump accuse?
The impeachment charges are political, not criminal. Congress accused the president of instigating the assault on Capitol Hill in his Jan. 6 speech to a demonstration of supporters outside the White House.
He urged his supporters at the time to make his voice heard “peacefully and nationally,” but also urged them to “fight hard” against the elections, which he told them, without providing evidence, that they were fraudulent.
Following Trump’s comments, his supporters stormed the Capitol, forcing lawmakers to suspend certification of election results and go into hiding. The authorities closed the building and five people died in the events.
The prosecution’s decision stated that Trump “repeatedly issued false statements confirming that the results of the presidential election were fraudulent and should not be accepted.”
He says he subsequently repeated these accusations and “intentionally made statements to the public that encouraged and subsequently led to illegal acts in the Capitol Building,” which caused violence and loss of life.
Insulation: the basics
What is isolation? Impeachment is when a president is charged with crimes while in office. In this case, President Trump is accused of inciting revolt by encouraging his followers to storm the Capitol.
Can Trump be removed from office? The House of Representatives voted in favor of his removal and the matter went to the Senate for trial. But the trial will not begin before Trump leaves office on January 20.
So what does that mean? The trial will begin after Trump’s term ends, and senators can vote to bar him from holding public office again.
What happens next
The United States Senate will hold a trial to determine whether the president is guilty, but that will not happen during Trump’s remaining week in office.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said there is “simply no opportunity for a fair or serious trial” at this time, given the “Senate rules, procedures and precedents” related to the trials of presidents.
A two-thirds majority is needed to convict Trump in the Senate, meaning that at least 17 Republicans must vote with Democrats in the evenly divided 100-seat upper house.
The New York Times reported Tuesday that up to 20 Senate Republicans were ready to impeach the president.
In a memo to colleagues, McConnell said he had not yet made a final decision on how to vote during the trial.
If the Senate convicts Trump, lawmakers can take another vote to prevent him from running again for office, which he indicated he intends to do in 2024.
Trump’s first impeachment trial took place in 2019, over his dealings with Ukraine. The Senate acquitted him at that time.