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The House will meet on Wednesday to debate and vote on whether to accuse President Trump of “inciting violence against the United States government,” advancing an effort to impeach him for the second time in under 13 month.
The decision to go ahead with the vote comes after Vice President Mike Pence on Tuesday refused in a letter to President Nancy Pelosi to strip the president of his powers using the 25th Amendment.
The impeachment article Democrats introduced on Monday aims to hold Mr. Trump accountable for his role in igniting a mob of his supporters who stormed the Capitol last week, killing a police officer from the Capitol, attacking legislators’ offices and stealing federal property. More concretely, he also invokes the 14th Amendment, potentially barring Mr. Trump from performing his duties in the future if he is ultimately convicted by the Senate.
Members of the House will meet at 9 a.m. to begin debate on the impeachment resolution.
Here’s how to follow the debate and what to watch out for:
Where to look
The impeachment proceeding can be streamed online on multiple platforms, including the House Clerk’s website, C-SPAN and YouTube. The New York Times will also provide a video of the audience with live analysis of reporters starting at 9 a.m.
Viewers can find the full debates on several networks, including CNN and PBS.
To monitor
Democrats appear to have more than enough support to vote to impeach Mr. Trump. But the frantic pace at which they’ve run to move forward with the vote has left some Republican lawmakers to procrastinate and come up with alternative solutions, such as a bipartisan move to censor the president.
Republicans in several chambers, including Rep. John Katko of New York and Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the party’s No.3 in the House, have said they will join Democrats in supporting impeachment. Several others who have not publicly discussed their positions are expected to do the same on Wednesday.
Yet the vast majority of Republicans are expected to vote against Mr. Trump’s impeachment. High-level Republicans, like Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the minority leader, have even publicly criticized the upcoming vote.
But unlike the latest indictment, in which Republicans were united in their opposition, Wednesday’s debate could reveal simmering divisions within the party, with lawmakers on both sides privately bubbling over the president’s conduct before and after. riot at the Capitol. The debate should reveal how ready Republicans are to express these views publicly.
What happens after?
If the House were to vote to impeach Mr. Trump as planned, attention will turn to the Senate, which could begin a trial as early as next week.
As President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. has entrusted lawmakers with handling the procedure, he expressed fears that the political drama surrounding impeachment could distract from his political agenda in the early days of his presidency.
The exact date on which the Senate might decide to hold a trial remains uncertain, but legal scholars agree that the impeachment could be completed even after Mr Trump leaves.
Mr Biden raised the possibility of “bifurcating” future Senate proceedings, allowing time to be spent on the trial while leaving part of the day for Senators to focus on confirming his cabinet and other candidates .
While the latest impeachment effort against Mr. Trump died in the Senate as Republicans voted overwhelmingly to acquit him, this time could be different.
Some Republican senators have denounced Mr. Trump’s actions and called on him to resign. And Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, who has been a strong supporter of the president in the past, has privately considered joining Democrats in preventing Mr. Trump from taking public office again.
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