{"id":49344,"date":"2021-01-13T18:14:45","date_gmt":"2021-01-14T01:14:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/trump-impeached-after-capitol-riot-in-historic-second-charge\/"},"modified":"2021-01-14T01:14:45","modified_gmt":"2021-01-14T01:14:45","slug":"trump-impeached-after-capitol-riot-in-historic-second-charge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/trump-impeached-after-capitol-riot-in-historic-second-charge\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump impeached after Capitol riot in historic second charge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Speaker
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., leads the final vote Wednesday of the impeachment of President Donald Trump, for his role in inciting an angry mob to storm the Congress last week at the Capitol in Washington.<\/span>J. Scott Applewhite\/Associated Press<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

WASHINGTON \u2013 President Donald Trump was impeached by the U.S. House for a historic second time Wednesday, charged with \u201cincitement of insurrection\u201d over the deadly mob siege of the Capitol in a swift and stunning collapse of his final days in office.<\/p>\n

With the Capitol secured by armed National Guard troops inside and out, the House voted 232-197 to impeach Trump. The proceedings moved at lightning speed, with lawmakers voting just one week after violent pro-Trump loyalists stormed the U.S. Capitol, urged on by the president\u2019s calls for them to \u201cfight like hell\u201d against the election results.<\/p>\n

Ten Republicans fled Trump, joining Democrats who said he needed to be held accountable and warned ominously of a \u201cclear and present danger\u201d if Congress should leave him unchecked before Democrat Joe Biden\u2019s inauguration Jan. 20.<\/p>\n

Trump is the only U.S. president to be twice impeached.<\/p>\n

\"President
President Donald Trump speaks to the media before boarding Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House on Tuesday. The House of Representatives on Wednesday impeached Trump for his role in inciting an angry mob to storm the Capitol last week<\/span>Gerald Herbert\/Associated Press<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Capitol insurrection stunned and angered lawmakers, who were sent scrambling for safety as the mob descended, and it revealed the fragility of the nation\u2019s history of peaceful transfers of power. The riot also forced a reckoning among some Republicans, who have stood by Trump throughout his presidency and largely allowed him to spread false attacks against the integrity of the 2020 election.<\/p>\n

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi invoked Abraham Lincoln and the Bible, imploring lawmakers to uphold their oath to defend the Constitution from all enemies, foreign \u201cand domestic.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said of Trump: \u201cHe must go, he is a clear and present danger to the nation that we all love.\u201d<\/p>\n

Holed up at the White House, watching the proceedings on TV, Trump took no responsibility for the bloody riot seen around the world, but issued a statement urging \u201cNO violence, NO lawbreaking and NO vandalism of any kind\u201d to disrupt Biden\u2019s ascension to the White House.<\/p>\n

In the face of the accusations against him and with the FBI warning of more violence, Trump said, \u201cThat is not what I stand for, and it is not what America stands for. I call on ALL Americans to help ease tensions and calm tempers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump was first impeached by the House in 2019 over his dealings with Ukraine, but the Senate voted in 2020 acquit. He is the first to be impeached twice. None has been convicted by the Senate, but Republicans said Wednesday that could change in the rapidly shifting political environment as officeholders, donors, big business and others peel away from the defeated president.<\/p>\n

\"Rep.
Rep. Vicky Hartzler, R-Mo., and Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Fla., hand pizzas to members of the National Guard gathered at the Capitol Visitor Center on Wednesday in Washington, as the House of Representatives continued with its fast-moving House vote to impeach President Donald Trump, a week after a mob of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol.<\/span>Manuel Balce Ceneta\/Associated Press<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The soonest Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell would start an impeachment trial is next Tuesday, the day before Trump is already set to leave the White House, McConnell\u2019s office said. The legislation is also intended to prevent Trump from ever running again.<\/p>\n

McConnell believes Trump committed impeachable offenses and considers the Democrats\u2019 impeachment drive an opportunity to reduce the divisive, chaotic president\u2019s hold on the GOP, a Republican strategist told The Associated Press on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

McConnell told major donors over the weekend that he was through with Trump, said the strategist, who demanded anonymity to describe McConnell\u2019s conversations.<\/p>\n

In a note to colleagues Wednesday, McConnell said he had \u201cnot made a final decision on how I will vote.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unlike his first time, Trump faces this impeachment as a weakened leader, having lost his own reelection as well as the Senate Republican majority.<\/p>\n

Even Trump ally Kevin McCarthy, the House Republican leader, shifted his position and said Wednesday the president bears responsibility for the horrifying day at the Capitol.<\/p>\n

In making a case for the \u201chigh crimes and misdemeanors\u201d demanded in the Constitution, the four-page impeachment resolution approved Wednesday relies on Trump\u2019s own incendiary rhetoric and the falsehoods he spread about Biden\u2019s election victory, including at a rally near the White House on the day of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.<\/p>\n

\"Speaker
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., returns to her leadership office after opening debate on the impeachment of President Donald Trump, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2021.<\/span>J. Scott Applewhite\/Associated Press<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A Capitol Police officer died from injuries suffered in the riot, and police shot and killed a woman during the siege. Three other people died in what authorities said were medical emergencies. The riot delayed the tally of Electoral College votes that was the last step in finalizing Biden\u2019s victory.<\/p>\n

Ten Republican lawmakers, including third-ranking House GOP leader Liz Cheney of Wyoming, voted to impeach Trump, cleaving the Republican leadership, and the party itself.<\/p>\n

Cheney, whose father is the former Republican vice president, said of Trump\u2019s actions summoning the mob that \u201cthere has never been a greater betrayal by a President\u201d of his office.<\/p>\n

Trump was said to be livid with perceived disloyalty from McConnell and Cheney.<\/p>\n

With the team around Trump hollowed out and his Twitter account silenced by the social media company, the president was deeply frustrated that he could not hit back, according to White House officials and Republicans close to the West Wing who weren\u2019t authorized to speak publicly about private conversations.<\/p>\n

From the White House, Trump leaned on Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina to push Republican senators to resist, while chief of staff Mark Meadows called some of his former colleagues on Capitol Hill.<\/p>\n

The president\u2019s sturdy popularity with the GOP lawmakers\u2019 constituents still had some sway, and most House Republicans voted not to impeach.<\/p>\n

Security was exceptionally tight at the Capitol, with tall fences around the complex. Metal-detector screenings were required for lawmakers entering the House chamber, where a week earlier lawmakers huddled inside as police, guns drawn, barricade the door from rioters.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are debating this historic measure at a crime scene,\u201d said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass.<\/p>\n

During the debate, some Republicans repeated the falsehoods spread by Trump about the election and argued that the president has been treated unfairly by Democrats from the day he took office.<\/p>\n

Other Republicans argued the impeachment was a rushed sham and complained about a double standard applied to his supporters but not to the liberal left. Some simply appealed for the nation to move on.<\/p>\n

Rep. Tom McClintock of California said, \u201cEvery movement has a lunatic fringe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet Democratic Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo. and others recounted the harrowing day as rioters pounded on the chamber door trying to break in. Some called it a \u201ccoup\u201d attempt.<\/p>\n

Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., contended that Trump was \u201ccapable of starting a civil war.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conviction and removal of Trump would require a two-thirds vote in the Senate, which will be evenly divided. Republican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania joined Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska over the weekend in calling for Trump to \u201cgo away as soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fending off concerns that an impeachment trial would bog down his first days in office, Biden is encouraging senators to divide their time between taking taking up his priorities of confirming his nominees and approving COVID-19 relief while also conducting the trial.<\/p>\n

The impeachment bill draws from Trump\u2019s own false statements about his election defeat to Biden. Judges across the country, including some nominated by Trump, have repeatedly dismissed cases challenging the election results, and former Attorney General William Barr, a Trump ally, has said there was no sign of widespread fraud.<\/p>\n

The House had first tried to persuade Vice President Mike Pence and the Cabinet to invoke their authority under the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office. Pence declined to do so, but the House passed the resolution anyway.<\/p>\n

The impeachment bill also details Trump\u2019s pressure on state officials in Georgia to \u201cfind\u201d him more votes.<\/p>\n

While some have questioned impeaching the president so close to the end of his term, there is precedent. In 1876, during the Ulysses Grant administration, War Secretary William Belknap was impeached by the House the day he resigned, and the Senate convened a trial months later. He was acquitted.<\/p>\n

Associated Press writers Kevin Freking, Andrew Taylor and Zeke Miller contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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