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There is much talk of unity and peace in the country among Republicans in Congress that day. A peace that would be in jeopardy if Democrats took the impeachment of Donald Trump seriously, which they would later do with his decision in the House of Representatives. But to understand just how fragile this peace had become before, a walk through Washington, through the Capitol to Congress on Wednesday was enough. Armed soldiers are in the streets. You can see them at the checkpoints at Union Station, Washington’s main train station. They can be seen in front of and behind the new fence that separates Parliament from the rest of the capital. You can see them in the report in front of the steps of the Capitol. And you can see them inside the building, where many have been left on the cold marble floor.
Dozens, if not hundreds, of the National Guard are still there early in the morning. Some are dozing in the hallways, with weapons and protective gear next to them. Some sit in the rotunda under the mighty dome and look at paintings showing the landing of Columbus and the surrender of the British in the War of Independence. Some stand in front of the stairs that lead to the House of Representatives hall.
Soldiers who must occupy and guard the United States Parliament because far-right terrorists have announced new attacks: these are the circumstances in which the members of the House of Representatives will meet on Wednesday to negotiate the impeachment against President Donald Trump, the second of his term. .
This impeachment is, of course, about Trump’s role in the mafia storm on Capitol Hill, which occurred exactly a week earlier at this time. On the way Trump first denied his electoral defeat for weeks and tried to reverse, and asked his supporters on January 6 to move to the Capitol. “You will never recover your country with weakness,” he said, “you must be strong.” He called on his followers to “fight like the devil.” Democrats see this as “incitement to insurrection,” so they want to punish Trump with impeachment.
This impeachment is also about the question of how big Trump’s influence is in the Republican party. A definitive answer is pending. But this Wednesday there are indications of which direction it could go. When the vote ended, 10 Republican MPs voted with Democrats to impeach Trump. There are not many in absolute terms: the Republican Group has 211 members. But measured by the cadaverous obedience the party has exercised toward Trump in recent years, this can be understood as a disengagement movement, albeit a very small one.
This movement is led by Liz Cheney, number three of the Republican faction. The daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney had already announced the night before that she would vote for impeachment against Trump and justified it with a harsh criticism of the president. Without Trump, there would have been no violent train on Capitol Hill, Cheney wrote: “Never has a president committed a greater treason to his office and his oath on the constitution.”
“It was not a protest, it was an uprising against our country that was organized by Donald Trump”
Nine of his party colleagues see him similarly, or at least want to counter Trump’s behavior. Among them are MPs from constituencies in which Trump won a majority in the presidential election. And if the vote had been secret, some more would have joined these deputies. He knows many Republicans who wanted to vote for impeachment but received death threats from their voters against themselves and their families, says Democrat Jason Crow. That also shows how things are with peace in the country.
Most Republicans, on the other hand, don’t say much about Trump’s January 6 speech. They prefer to talk about how the second impeachment came about, quickly and without hearings. It is unnecessary to initiate an impeachment process against the president a few days before the end of his term, which would also only occur after Trump was no longer in office. “If we take action against any politician who makes a strong speech to his supporters, this building would be empty,” says Rep. Tom McClintock.
Above all, impeachment is dangerous because it further heats the mood. McClintock says the Democrats won everything in the election: the presidency, the majority in Congress. “That requires generosity, not revenge.” And Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy warns that impeachment would further divide the country: “It will keep the fire burning.”
What few Republicans mention is their own contribution to this state of mind. Top MPs also kept repeating Trump’s false claims about a stolen election for weeks, pretending to the end that the election results might actually change. 147 deputies also voted against the certification of electorate votes after the occupation of the Capitol. In doing so, they served Trump’s narrative about the illegitimate election of Joe Biden.
Democrats must be heard in the debate over their shock and anger over the events of January 6. Many parliamentarians tell how they feared for their lives in this place seven days ago. How they knelt on the ground and hid as the mob raged outside the hallway doors. He looked these people in the eye, says Jim McGovern, and saw “evil.” “It was not a protest, it was an uprising against our country that was organized by Donald Trump.” Trump must be held accountable for his behavior, only then can the country move towards a cure – that’s what one Democratic speaker after another says.
A power shift in Washington has never seemed so martial
From the gallery of the House of Representatives, the footprints left by the mob in the room are not visible. Most of the remains of the destruction have also been removed from the belly of the Capitol. The bust of President Zachary Taylor, with dried blood on it, has disappeared behind a board, the broken pieces have been swept away, and the Nancy Pelosi name plate is back on the table. “The damage to the building can be repaired,” McGovern says in the debate, “but if we don’t hold Trump accountable, the damage to our country could be irreversible.”
For Democrats, the result of the vote is a temporary success: In the first impeachment trial in December 2019, when Trump was charged with abuse of power in the Ukraine issue, not a single Republican voted for an impeachment charge. Trump and the Republican leadership could say that it is a purely political-partisan issue. This Wednesday, minority leader Kevin McCarthy does not even try to line up all his colleagues before the vote: he declares that the vote is a “matter of conscience.”
It remains to be seen whether the impeachment will lead to a conviction of Trump. The impeachment now goes to the Senate, where a two-thirds majority is required for a guilty verdict. However, the negotiation will begin on January 20, at the earliest after Biden’s inauguration. If one believes the feverish speculation in Washington, Mitch McConnell, the head of the Republicans in the Senate, no longer rules out voting in favor of a Trump conviction. On Wednesday he published a video in which he condemned what happened when the Capitol was attacked: “Violence and vandalism have no place in our country and have no place in our movement,” Trump said, the mood must calm. He was appalled at the “catastrophe” that the perpetrators of the violence had to go to court. Trump did not address his role in this catastrophe and impeachment.
Until his successor is sworn in in a week, the Capitol and its surroundings will change again: even more security precautions, even more national guards. When Biden is sworn in from the newly constructed rostrum on the west side of the building, more than 20,000 troops will be deployed to the US capital, far more than US forces have stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan. A change of power in Washington has never seemed so martial.
