Washington: The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives would vote on the impeachment of outgoing President Donald Trump on Wednesday on charges of inciting his supporters to carry out a violent attack on the Capitol Hill last week.
Co-authored by Congressmen Jamie Raskin, David Cicilline and Ted Lieu, the article of impeachment — co-sponsored by 211 House members — was tabled on Monday.
During a conference call with his party colleagues on Monday, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said the impeachment vote will be held on Wednesday.
The article of impeachment charges Trump with a count of “incitement of insurrection” for his actions on January 6, when he delivered a speech inciting his supporters to lay siege to the Capitol, an action that temporarily halted the counting of Electoral College votes and resulted in the deaths of five individuals, including an officer of the US Capitol Police.
The Democrats have enough votes to impeach the president in the House, which requires a simple majority. But the Senate, where both the Republicans and Democrats have now 50-50 seats — would require votes of two-third of the members to remove the president out of the office. Vice President-elect Kamala Harris in her capacity as Chairperson of the Senate would add one more to the Democrats when necessary.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said the vote on impeachment in the upper chambers of the US Congress can not happen before the Inauguration Day on January 20.
Later on Monday, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar also introduced two articles of impeachment against Trump. The first article cites Trump’s abuse of power for attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia. The second article addresses the incitement of violence for orchestrating an attempted coup against our country.
“I just introduced my impeachment resolution. The full House will now vote on a measure calling on Vice President (Mike) Pence and the cabinet to remove President Donald Trump under the 25th amendment. If Pence does not act, the House will move to impeach this week,” Omar said.
Republican Senator Steve Daines rejected calls for impeachment. “Now is the time to stand united, move forward together and have a peaceful transition of power. Pushing partisan driven articles of impeachment through Congress days before the inauguration will further divide our country,” he said.
Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz said impeachment is unnecessary, divisive, and it’s only being done because Democrats want to keep the focus on Trump so they can hold together their fragile coalition.
“This week, the House will vote to impeach Donald Trump for inciting an insurrection against the seat of our democracy,” said Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur.
“Liberty and the rule of law, though always fragile, are bedrock tenets of our democratic republic. No President – nay, no American – ought to be able to incite violence against our democracy without repercussion. The American people demand accountability to prevent such horrific events from ever happening again,” she said.
