Washington – The House of Representatives voted to charge President Trump with inciting an insurrection at the Capitol that left five people dead, and consolidated his place in history as the only president to be charged twice in a bipartisan reprimand which was passed with unprecedented speed.
The final vote went from 232 to 197, with 10 Republicans joining all 222 Democrats to support a single dismissal article accusing the president of “inciting insurrection.”
“We know that the president of the United States incited this insurrection, this armed rebellion, against our common country,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said before the vote. “It has to go. It’s a clear and present danger to the nation we all love.”
Trump was first indicted in December 2019 for his efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate the Biden family. His second removal comes just a week before President-elect Joe Biden takes office as his successor. Only two more presidents have been indicted since the founding of the republic.
On Jan. 6, the president addressed supporters near the White House and urged them to “fight like hell” as members of Congress prepared to formalize Mr. Biden’s victory. Subsequently, an angry mob marched into the Capitol and burst into the complex, smashing windows and breaking doors to gain access to the halls of Congress. The mob managed to stop the counting of the electoral votes for several hours.
House Democrats put the impeachment resolution to a vote with unprecedented speed that reflected the seriousness of the assault on the Capitol and the limited time remaining in Trump’s term. The resolution was first introduced Monday, and Democrats abandoned the typical process of holding hearings and conducting an investigation.
The indictment will soon be addressed in the Senate, where lawmakers will have to hold a trial on whether to convict Mr. Trump and remove him from office. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Wednesday he has not made any decision on whether to vote to sentence the president to trial.
With just seven days to go before Trump’s term, the trial in the Senate could extend to his successor’s term. If that happens, the Senate could still choose to convict Mr. Trump and prevent him from holding any federal office in the future. A vote to condemn requires a two-thirds vote in the Senate.
The president has refused to take responsibility for his role in inciting the crowd that stormed the Capitol, and insisted on Tuesday that his speech before the uprising was “totally appropriate.”