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WASHINGTON – House Democrats formally filed an article of impeachment against President Donald Trump for inciting a mob that attacked Capitol Hill in an attempt to overturn the election results last week, setting a vote on the trial. politician on Wednesday (January 13) who have the numbers win.
The impeachment article filed Monday accuses Trump of “inciting insurrection,” pointing to his false claims that the presidential election had been rigged and how he rallied his supporters to march on Capitol Hill.
Criticizing the impeachment measures of Democratic lawmakers, Trump said: “This impeachment is causing great anger and they are doing it, and it is really a terrible thing that they are doing.”
He also said the move was a continuation of the “witch hunt” against him.
“I don’t want violence,” he told reporters yesterday when he was going to visit the border wall in Alamo, Texas.
Democrats also introduced a resolution asking Vice President Mike Pence and the cabinet to act to impeach Trump, seeking to pass it by unanimous consent, which Republican lawmakers blocked. That resolution will be put to a vote in the House on Tuesday evening (Wednesday morning Singapore time).
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said the vote to impeach Trump could be on Wednesday, and he wanted articles of impeachment sent to the Republican-controlled Senate without delay, CNN reported.
Democratic Congressman David Cicilline, who filed the impeachment charges along with 213 other lawmakers, said Monday he had the support of a simple majority of the 435 members of the House.
“I can report that we now have the votes to impeach,” he said on Twitter. He later told the Washington Post that 220 Democrats will vote in favor of impeachment.
If the House votes for impeachment, the Senate will hold a trial and vote to convict or acquit Trump. But he’s unlikely to muster the supermajority needed for a conviction, much like when Trump was first indicted by a Democratic House and acquitted by a Republican Senate in 2020.
Republicans have responded to the impeachment proceedings and criticized them as divisive, while Democrats have called them a necessary way to hold Trump accountable for his actions.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told Republicans he opposed impeachment, suggesting four other options for denouncing the Capitol attack, including a no-confidence resolution.
“Personally, I continue to believe that an impeachment at this time would have the opposite effect of uniting our country when we need to get America back on the path to unity and civility,” McCarthy said in a letter to House Republicans.
However, some Democrats have raised concerns that having a Senate trial in the first days or weeks of President-elect Joe Biden’s term could hamper his ability to enact his agenda.
Biden suggested that the Senate split its time between impeachment and hearings to confirm its nominees for cabinet posts.
“Can you spend half a day dealing with impeachment and half a day getting my people nominated and confirmed in the Senate? As well as moving forward with the (Covid-19 stimulus) package, ”Biden said Monday after receiving his second injection of the Covid-19 vaccine, adding that he had discussed this with House and Senate leaders.
The impeachment article accused Trump of inciting violence against the United States government.
In the months leading up to the congressional meeting to certify the victory of President-elect Joe Biden, Trump “repeatedly issued false statements asserting that the results of the presidential election were the product of widespread fraud and should not be accepted,” the statement read.
“He also deliberately made statements that, in context, encouraged – and predictably resulted in – illegal actions on Capitol Hill, such as: ‘If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.’
Trump has also previously been involved in efforts to subvert and obstruct election results, the office said, pointing to the president’s phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
A recording of the Jan. 2 phone call, first reported by the Washington Post, showed how Trump urged Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to make him the winner of the undecided state electoral votes, and threatened him if he did not. it did. .
“In all of this, President Trump seriously jeopardized the security of the United States and its institutions of government. It threatened the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful transition of power, and endangered an egalitarian power of the government, ”the official said.
“In doing so, he betrayed his trust as president, to the manifest offense of the people of the United States.”
More than 300 constitutional historians and scholars signed an open letter published Monday that called Trump “a clear and present danger to American democracy,” and called for his impeachment and impeachment.
More violence is expected in Washington DC and in state capitals ahead of Biden’s inauguration on January 20.
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