President Donald Trump was impeached by the House Of Representatives on Wednesday, one week after his supporters attacked Congress in a failed attempt to stop them from certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Trump now becomes the first president in U.S. history to be impeached twice and ten Republicans joined all 222 House Democrats, making it the most bipartisan impeachment in U.S. history.
Trump was charged with “incitement of insurrection” seven days after he told a crowd to “fight like hell” during a speech that proceeded the unprecedented domestic terror attack on the Capitol Building.
The world watched in horror last week as members of Congress hid within the Capitol Building, while Trump's supporters, armed with pipe bombs, guns, Molotov cocktails, radios, stun guns and more, killed a Capitol Police officer and ransacked the building while looking for prominent political figures to take hostage.
“He threatened the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful transition of power, and imperiled a coequal branch of government. He thereby betrayed his trust as president, to manifest injury of the people of the United States,” the House’s charging document read.
The House has impeached President Donald Trump for the second time.
Ten Republicans joined all Democrats in a 232-197 vote supporting a single impeachment count: "incitement of insurrection." https://t.co/cUs4zD4FY7
pic.twitter.com/xSFzuB7DvH— POLITICO (@politico) January 13, 2021
Trump watched as his supporters fought police and desecrated the offices of senior Democrats like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and others, according to The New York Times. Even Vice President Mike Pence was in danger as the pro-Trump mob erected a noose and chanted "hang Mike Pence" before scouring the Capitol Building for him.
In the days since some Republican officials have sought to distance themselves from the terror attack as donors to the party fled and social media sites cracked down on far-right groups that were planning more attacks. The ten Republicans who voted to impeach the president included Liz Cheney, the daughter of former Republican Vice President Dick Cheney and the third most senior Republican in the House.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler did not hold back in his speech about the need for impeachment, telling the House, "we all saw it coming."
He said for months Trump and other senior Republicans repeatedly lied to their supporters about the results of the 2020 presidential election and used his massive pulpit as president to incite his followers into a violent frenzy.
"He implored them, again and again, to help him stay in power. And he convinced them that accepting the outcome of the election posed an existential threat to their families and their freedoms. We have a duty to observe, Madam Speaker, that racism played a direct role in this incitement. The president’s violent rhetoric is always at its most fevered pitch when he is talking about the civil rights and civic aspirations of Black Americans and other minority communities," Nadler said.
"On Jan. 6, at a rally that was large, angry, and widely reported to be armed, the president’s lies and violent rhetoric reached their crescendo. At that rally, the president took the stage. After reiterating the falsehood that 'we won this election, and we won it by a landslide,' he told the crowd that 'if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.' And then he urged the mob to 'walk down Pennsylvania Avenue' to prevent the Congress from confirming the election of 'an illegitimate president.'"
Trump specifically intended for the attack to be a de facto coup, and wanted his followers to target the vice president, the speaker of the House, and the president pro tempore of the Senate, the next three officers in the line of succession, Nadler added.
Six people died during the attack and for the first time in the country's history, the Confederate flag flew inside the Capitol Building, something that didn't even happen during the Civil War.
THREAD: When white supremacists stormed the Capitol waving confederate flags, they followed a long history of racial terror and state sanctioned violence. Erasure of this domestic terrorism has upheld white supremacy and will do so until we confront it. pic.twitter.com/IQ50kXCO9w
— Thurgood Marshall Institute (@TMI_LDF) January 11, 2021
Hundreds of people have been arrested and the FBI and Justice Department said yesterday that more charges will be coming as they comb through video footage of the attack.
A trial will now be held in the Senate, but Republican leader Mitch McConnell has refused to reconvene the Senate until Jan. 19, just one day before President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated on Jan. 20.
When asked about impeachment on Tuesday, Trump threatened more violence.
"For [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi and [Senate Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer to continue on this path, I think it's causing tremendous danger to our country and it's causing tremendous anger," Trump said.
For many in the House, his comments were even more of a reason for them to move forward with impeachment.
"Today, we must focus on the gravest threat first: President Trump, who incited this riot and who remains a grave danger to the nation," Nadler added.
"'President Trump has made clear in word and deed that he will persist in such conduct if he is not removed from power. He poses a continuing threat to our nation, to the integrity of our elections, and to our democratic order. He must not remain in power one moment longer.' Not one moment longer. The danger is too great. We must impeach."