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A House vote on Tuesday revealed strong support for the impeachment of President Donald Trump following the violent Jan.6 attack on Capitol Hill.
House lawmakers on Tuesday voted 223-205 to approve a resolution by Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD) urging Vice President Mike Pence to use the process outlined in the 25th Amendment to force Trump to resign. One Republican – Representative Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) – voted in favor of the resolution alongside the Democrats.
Although the resolution is not binding – and Pence once said he won’t invoke the 25th Amendment – the vote captured House support for Trump’s impeachment. Several Republicans, including Reps. Lis Cheney (R-WY), John Katko (R-NY) and Kinzinger (R-IL) also announced earlier today that they plan to support the impeachment of Trump, who will get a vote on Wednesday.
Notably, House Republicans do not plan to beat the impeachment vote, CNN and Politico reported. In other words, while most GOP members in the House are expected to vote against impeaching the president, party leaders will not try to convince the small group of lawmakers who are considering defecting to do otherwise.
Calls for Trump’s resignation or impeachment have increased since Jan.6, when the president urged his supporters to march to Capitol Hill and voice concerns about the certification of election results. The 25th Amendment – which allows the Vice President and a Cabinet majority to declare a President “incapable of discharging the powers and duties of his office” and to force them resign – was seen as the quickest way to remove Trump, although Pence has previously said he will not go down that route.
On Wednesday, the House will weigh an impeachment article, accusing Trump of inciting an insurgency. Given the overwhelming majority of Democrats on board, Trump is set to become the first U.S. president in history to be impeached twice.
House Democrats’ next steps on impeachment, briefly explained
Tuesday’s 25th Amendment resolution is the first of two votes the House will take in an attempt to remove Trump from office.
The House will present an article of impeachment on Wednesday morning and organize a vote on it for later today. Democrats had 217 cosponsors for the resolution on Tuesday afternoon, by representative David Cicilline, one of the authors.
The House will vote on the sole article of impeachment, accusing Trump of “inciting an insurgency” for his role in cheering up a host of his supporters who then stormed Capitol Hill. Trump spoke to a crowd on a pre-riot “Save America Rally,” in which he repeatedly said the election was “stolen” and asked them to march to Capitol Hill ” to see if we have great and courageous leaders or whether or not we have leaders who should be ashamed of themselves throughout history, for all eternity. “
In their impeachment article, Democrats also mention Trump’s recent phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in which he encouraged Raffensperger to “find” more than 11,000 votes to quash the election. He also refers to Trump’s rhetoric that the November election is “fraudulent,” a lie he has been repeating since his loss.
But the biggest thing Democrats are focusing on is how Trump’s continuing lies have resulted in violence and death in Washington, marking the first violation of Capitol Hill since the British invasion of 1812 – and the first time by. US citizens.
If the House passes the impeachment article, Pelosi will then forward it to the Senate. Until then, Democrats may be considering a long trial days before Trump is in office. Some, including Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), are concerned that this will hurt Biden’s ability to get his Cabinet candidates approved and pass critical elements of his platform.
“We have to put our government in place quickly – this is the most important thing we should do,” Manchin told the Post. last week. “We no longer need political theater.”
Impeachment trial could coincide with start of Biden administration
According to a memo from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the Senate will not meet for regular business until Jan. 19, unless lawmakers agree to do so earlier by unanimous consent. Given the likely Republican opposition to an earlier start, the Senate likely won’t be in full session for another week.
This moment means that the start of an impeachment trial would coincide with that of the Biden administration, which officially begins after Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris were sworn in on January 20. To start an earlier trial, the new Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer urged McConnell to reconvene the upper house using emergency powers established under a 2004 law.
By law, the Senate majority and minority leaders are able to reconvene the Senate in an emergency – essentially bypassing unanimous consent to do so – if both lawmakers consent. Speaking on Tuesday, Schumer said: “This is a time of urgency.”
“The bottom line is that Chief McConnell has the ability to call us back in session. And we can then move on to the conviction of Donald Trump in the impeachment trial and judge him, ”he added. “That’s what we hope McConnell will do.”
McConnell has yet to comment on whether he would agree to the arrangement, but it is unlikely he will. As a result, as of late January, the Senate is poised to juggle both an impeachment trial, its own legislative agenda, and the confirmations of the Biden cabinet candidates.
House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn previously suggested the House could delay sending the articles of impeachment in order to delay a potential trial, but some Democrats – including Majority Leader Steny Hoyer – argue that the sooner the better. According to the rules, once the House sends articles of impeachment to the Senate, the Upper House must begin the trial soon after.
What exactly this will look like in practice is not yet clear: Biden has suggested the Senate could share its time by tackling legislation and appointments in the morning and having the impeachment trial later today. . “Can we spend half a day dealing with the impeachment, and half a day getting my people appointed and confirmed in the Senate and taking action?” Biden appeared to suggest on Monday.
Senate time was also split between impeachment and other legislative matters during Trump’s trial in 2020, Politico reported. In an interview with Buffalo News, Schumer said the upper house is likely to take this approach.
“We’re going to have to do several things at once, but we also have to move the agenda forward. Yes, we have to do both, ”he said.
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