According to NBC News, more than 200 members of both the House and the House of Representatives are currently supporting Trump’s removal after supporters of outgoing US President Trump “captured” the Capitol. On the 8th local time, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Pelosi said that if Trump does not resign, Democrats are ready to advance impeachment proceedings next week.
According to several U.S. media sources, House Democrats have written a new impeachment draft against Trump, which states that “Trump deliberately incites violence against the U.S. government.”
Once impeachment is initiated, Trump will become the first U.S. president in U.S. history to be initiated with impeachment proceedings twice.
In December 2019, the House of Representatives voted to pass two articles of impeachment against Trump, accusing him of “abuse of power” and “obstructing Congress”, but they were ultimately rejected by the Senate. Just 11 months later, with less than two weeks left in his presidency, Trump once again faced impeachment.
The New York Times reported on the 9th that unlike previous impeachments of the current president, this is the final battle to test the political, accountability and constitutional boundaries of the United States. However, there are endless differences between the parties about whether to impeach Trump.
If there is a second impeachment, it may not be able to go ahead of his resignation.
If Pelosi continues to push impeachment, the House may pass impeachment resolutions in the next few days and send them to the Senate for trial. According to the New York Times, passing impeachment requires more than two-thirds of the vote in the Senate, and it is usually impossible for 17 Republican senators to join the Democratic Party.
The report also pointed out that this time may be different from the impeachment trial in American history. The “capture” of the Capitol left a group of Congressmen “angry” that Republican leaders privately said that it was not impossible and that impeachment decisions could be supported by some Republicans.
The New York Times said that the incident changed American politics in a way that is still incalculable.
This new impeachment will not only be the first time of last year’s failure, because this time, it is no longer a call record recorded in dry words, but a scene of simultaneous global live broadcast and public view.
“Trump-incited insurgents attack Congress to prevent Congress from certifying Electoral College results.” Congressman Liu Yunping from California, one of the drafters of the impeachment draft resolution, said. Someone died as a result.
We can’t just issue harshly worded press releases in response. Unless Trump resigns, Congress must impeach him and hold him accountable for it.”
According to previous reports in the U.S. media, Democrats are also considering removing them from the presidency by the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It is reported that there is also a discussion at the top of the Republican Party.
According to the amendment, if the Vice President and cabinet members judge that the President is unable to perform his duties normally, the Vice President will act as President.
However, according to the New York Times, Vice President Pence allegedly opposed the use of the amendment. Pelosi said at a congressional press conference on the 7th that if Pence does not take action, Congress may start impeachment proceedings again.
On January 11th local time, Liu Yunping and several other drafters planned to submit the draft to more than 190 co-sponsors.
According to the New York Times, House Speaker Pelosi consulted Democrats on the 9th and wrote to them to prepare for possible action to return to Washington within a few days. She didn’t make it clear she would seek impeachment, but vowed to hold Trump accountable. She wrote, “It must be admitted that this blasphemy was incited by the president.”
However, the New York Times reported that impeachment may not be able to meet Trump’s resignation because he is only 11 days away from office. Republican leader McConnell said that the Senate is currently in recess, and the trial will not start until January 19 at the earliest.
Even if the Senate heard the House representative’s statement on the impeachment clause on the 19th of the same day, it will need to consider whether to accept the impeachment clause until 1 p.m. the next day, so the impeachment of Trump will happen at the earliest after Biden is sworn in.
And the trial of Trump after his resignation is bound to cast a shadow on the early days of Biden’s administration.
Earlier, Biden said that the top priority after taking office was to deal with crises such as the coronavirus epidemic.
This situation will become more fatal if people focus all their attention on the political struggle in Washington. The impeachment trial broadcast live on national television may dominate the topic of proceedings and hinder other Senate affairs.
“If the House really submitted an impeachment resolution, they really gave the Biden administration a bad start.” Senator Roy Blount, a Republican from Missouri, said on the 9th. Whether it’s the first 10 days or the first 20 days, it’s definitely not the right way for Biden to want to start his presidency.”
Should I be impeached?
Some people want to “get out of trouble”, while others worry about dividing the country.
However, some Trump critics believe that in order to prevent him from running for president again, even if he has lost power, it is important to hold impeachment trials. If the impeachment succeeds, the Senate will decide what sanctions to impose on Trump.
According to the U.S. Constitution, only half of the votes are needed to pass, and the Senate can prohibit convicted people from holding federal office in the future.
“We never thought about the possibility of impeaching the same president twice, or impeaching it in the last days of the presidency.” Michael Gerhardt, a constitutional scholar at the University of North Carolina, said.
But we have never seen any president like Trump encourage sedition in the last days of his term.”
But some of the harshest critics fear that last-minute impeachment and “overtime” may help Trump continue to win over supporters and let him shift people’s attention from his own actions to the actions of his opponents.
The New York Times quoted a poll that at present, the vast majority of Americans believe Trump is responsible for the attack, and 63% believe that he should be largely condemned.
But when asked if steps should be taken to oust him, the partisan divide resurfaced, with 48% saying it was right and 49% saying it shouldn’t.
There are also major differences within the Republican Party on “impeachment”.
Pennsylvania Senator Patrick Toomey told Fox News on the 9th that “the president has committed impeachable crimes” and that he, like at least three other Senate Republicans, is open to impeachment.
But some Republicans have once again chosen to “go to war” with the Democratic Party, such as Republican Senator Lindsay Graham.
On the 8th, Graham mentioned Trump’s call for “heal the wounds and reach a reconciliation” in the video on Fox News on the 7th, and attacked: “Radical Democrats are not trying to follow President Trump’s example, but talking about another impeachment that will further destroy the country.”
House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy expressed his opposition to the impeachment of Trump on the 8th, saying that it would only “further divide our country”.
Jonathan Turley, a law professor at the University of Washington, also believes that impeachment is out of partisan anger and “will hurt the Constitution and make it completely shattered, just as rioters did to the Capitol.”
But the New York Times pointed out that once impeachment is launched, Trump will face a difficult problem – finding a lawyer to defend himself.
Jay Sekulo, the head of the Trump impeachment defense team last year, called the idea that Democrats put forward a second impeachment a “great mistake”, but he did not participate in Trump’s legal action to overturn the election results, nor did he reply whether he would “go to war” for Trump again.
Pat Hipporon, the White House legal counsel who partnered with Sekulo last year, is considering resigning because he is very dissatisfied with the attack on the Capitol.
