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WASHINGTON: A week after supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the United States Capitol, the House of Representatives began the debate on Wednesday (January 13) when lawmakers considered indicting him for his role in an assault on democracy. American who astonished the nation and left five dead.
At least five Republicans have said they would join Democrats in voting for an article of impeachment, a formal charge, to incite an insurrection just seven days before he leaves office and President-elect Joe Biden will be sworn in on January 20. . the House approves, Trump would become the first president to be accused twice.
Trump’s impeachment in the House of Representatives would not immediately remove him from office, but would set up a trial in the Republican-controlled Senate. It was not clear if such a trial would be carried out in time to remove Trump from office. While lawmakers debated the issue, National Guard troops and police were stationed around the Capitol to provide security.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, the second Democrat, said Democrats intended to send the impeachment charge, once passed, to the Senate “as soon as possible”, and the president of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, appointed nine impeachment managers who would present the House case during a Senate Trial.
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Members of the National Guard gather and rest, before Democrats begin debating an article of impeachment against US President Donald Trump at the US Capitol in Washington on January 13, 2021. (Photo: Reuters / Joshua Roberts).
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer wears a protective mask as he arrives at the United States Capitol on January 13, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Photo: AFP / Getty Images / Stefani Reynolds)
The extraordinary speed with which the Democrats were moving reflects the continuing danger Trump poses to national security, according to leading Democrats. It also increases pressure on Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate leader, to consider an immediate trial.
McConnell has said no trials could begin until the chamber returns from its recess on January 19. But Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who will become Majority Leader after two newly elected Democratic senators from Georgia are seated and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will be sworn in later this month, told reporters that the Senate could be called in to handle the matter if McConnell agrees.
“CRIME SCENE”
Washington is on high alert after the January 6 riots, with one week to go until Trump’s term. Thousands of National Guard soldiers were to be on hand and some service members wearing work uniforms, weapons in hand, could be seen sleeping inside the Capitol building on Wednesday before the session.
The House convened shortly after 9 a.m. (10 p.m. Singapore time) in the same chamber where lawmakers hid under chairs last Wednesday when rioters clashed with police in the halls of the Capitol.
“We are debating this landmark measure at an actual crime scene,” Democratic Rep. Jim McGovern said at the start of the session. “This was a well-organized attack on our country that was incited by Donald Trump.”
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Members of the National Guard rest in the Rotunda of the United States Capitol in Washington DC on January 13, 2021, before the House vote to impeach the President of the United States, Donald Trump. (Photo: AFP / Saul Loeb)
House Republicans who opposed the impeachment campaign argued that Democrats were going too far, as Trump was about to leave office, and advocated the creation of a commission to study the events surrounding the siege.
“Rather than moving forward as a unifying force, the majority in the House is choosing to divide us further,” Oklahoma Republican Tom Cole said in the room. Cole was one of 139 House Republicans who voted against certifying the results of the November 3 presidential election on Wednesday, hours after the violence, after Trump made false claims of widespread voter fraud.
Republican Rep. Jason Smith accused Democrats of being reckless and urged the House not to impeach Trump to help “heal the nation.”
Democrats advanced in an impeachment vote after Vice President Mike Pence rejected an effort to persuade him to invoke the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to impeach Trump.
As the House prepared for the impeachment vote, there were signs that Trump’s grip on the Republican Party was beginning to wane. At least five House Republicans, including Liz Cheney, a member of his party’s leadership team, said they would vote for his second impeachment, a prospect no president before Trump has faced.
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Members of the National Guard gather and rest, before Democrats begin debating an article of impeachment against US President Donald Trump at the US Capitol in Washington on January 13, 2021. (Photo: AP).
“There has never been a greater betrayal on the part of an incumbent president of the United States and his oath to the Constitution,” Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, said in a statement.
Trump “summoned this mob, rallied the mob, and lit the flame of this attack” on Capitol Hill, he said.
Republicans Jaime Herrera Beutler, John Katko, Adam Kinzinger and Fred Upton also said they supported impeachment.
In a break with standard procedure, Republican leaders in the House have refrained from urging their members to vote against impeachment of Trump, saying it was a matter of individual conscience.
The New York Times reported that McConnell was said to be pleased with the impeachment push, another sign that Trump’s party is looking to quit after the attack on Congress.
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The Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, will preside over the second ballot in just 13 months to impeach President Donald Trump. (Photo: AFP / Andrew Caballero-Reynolds)
The House previously voted to impeach Trump in December 2019 on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress stemming from his request that Ukraine investigate Biden and his son Hunter before the election, as Democrats accused him of requesting the foreign interference to defame a national policy. rival. The Republican-led Senate in February 2020 voted to keep Trump in office.
The impeachment article accused Trump of “incitement to insurrection” and said he sparked violence against the US government in a speech to thousands of supporters near the White House shortly before the Capitol siege. The article also cited Trump’s Jan. 2 phone call asking a Georgia official to “find” votes to overturn Biden’s victory in the state.
“TOTALLY APPROPRIATE”
In his first public appearance since last Wednesday’s riot, Trump showed no regret Tuesday for his speech shortly before the siege.
“What I said was totally appropriate,” Trump told reporters.
In a meeting to set the rules for the impeachment vote on Wednesday, Democratic Rep. David Cicilline, who helped craft the impeachment measure, said he had the support of 217 lawmakers, enough to impeach Trump.
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Members of the National Guard are given guns before Democrats begin debating an article of impeachment against US President Donald Trump at the US Capitol in Washington on January 13, 2021 (Photo: Reuters / Joshua Roberts).
A two-thirds majority of the Senate is needed to convict Trump, which means that at least 17 Republicans in the 100-member chamber would have to vote in favor of conviction.
Democrats could also use impeachment to push for a vote preventing Trump from running again for office.
It only takes a simple majority in the Senate to disqualify Trump from future office, but there is disagreement among legal experts on whether an impeachment conviction is needed before a disqualification vote.
A different part of the Constitution, the 14th Amendment, also provides a procedure to disqualify Trump from future office with a simple majority of both houses.
