January13th local time, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the impeachment clause against President Trump by 232 votes to 197, formally accusing him of “sedition”.
Trump became the first president in American history to be impeached twice.
The day before, on the 12th local time, the House of Representatives officially passed a resolution urging Vice President Pence to remove President Trump from office by invoked by using the 25th amendment to the Constitution.
Before the resolution was passed, Pence wrote to Speaker of the House of Representatives Pelosi, explicitly refusing to take action, saying that invoking the 25th Amendment was not in the best interests of the United States.
This impeachment against US President Trump is the second time in his term of office.
In December 2019, Trump was impeached for “abusing power and obstructing the operation of Congress”.
Why was Trump impeached again?
On January 6, some demonstrators supporting Trump’s overthrow of the presidential election forced their way into the U.S. Capitol, interrupting the voting process of the Senate and the House of Representatives Accredited Electoral College.
Four protesters and one congressional policeman were killed in the riots. Before the Capitol Hill riots, Trump repeatedly called on social media to protest supporters from all over the world to Washington, and spoke at a demonstration outside the White House earlier on the 6th.
In response to the violent protests in Washington, D.C. on the 6th, public opinion generally believes that the “fall” of Congress has impacted American democracy and seriously affected the basis of American political operation.
After riots broke out on Capitol Hill on the 6th, Trump still insisted that there was fraud in the 2020 presidential election and repeatedly said that he was irresponsible for the incident.
Although Trump’s term is coming to an end on January 20, some Democrats are still worried that Trump will use presidential power again at the end of his term to interfere with the transfer of presidential power and the operation of national power.
According to the analysis of the U.S. media, the Republican side also deliberately tried to “sweep Trump out” through impeachment because of the large amount of chaos caused by Trump’s tenure, out of partisan interests and various political considerations.
Get rid of Pence. The House of Representatives vigorously promotes the impeachment process.
As early as January 11, Pelosi, Speaker of the House of Representatives and a Democrat, called with the “Impeach Trump” working group led by him, asking them to return to the House on the evening of the 12th to launch a vote related to Trump impeachment.
The Democratic Party’s approach this time is to require the current Vice President of the United States Pence to deprive the President of power by virtue of the fourth amendment to the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, “the Vice President and the majority of the Cabinets write to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Pro tempore Speaker of the Senate to declare that the President cannot effectively perform his duties”, and Vice President Pence will take his place. President.
Although Vice President Pence refused to invoke Article 25 of the U.S. Constitution on the 12th on the grounds that “impeaching Trump will harm the interests of the United States” and rejected the subsequent request passed by the House of Representatives to advance the impeachment process within 24 hours, the House can still invoke another law that empowers Congress to enforce the President’s impeachment bill.
According to Article 2, paragraph 4, of the U.S. Constitution, Congress can impeach and remove officials if they determine that officials such as the President “have treason, bribery or other serious crimes and misconduct” before the end of their term of office.
On the 13th, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the impeachment bill against US President Trump by 232 votes to 197, and the impeachment process officially began. This also makes Trump the first U.S. president in U.S. history to be initiated twice initiation proceedings.
What will happen after the second impeachment begins?
After the House successfully advanced the impeachment process, the impeachment hearing about Trump will be held in the Senate.
Previously, Senate Majority Leader Republican Senator Mitch McConnell hinted with “the Senate adjourn until the 19th” that “it is likely that the House’s request will not be dealt with until Biden takes office”.
On the 13th, Mitch McConnell made it clear that he would not use the emergency power to request the Senate to resume its meeting early. There is reason to infer that Trump will have a high probability of completing his four-year term.
In fact, as early as late 2019, the Democrats launched an impeachment of Trump, but it was eventually rejected in the Senate.
At that time, the Republican majority in the Senate, Trump could veto his impeachment by partisan advantage.
But so far, many Republican senators have affirmed that impeaching Trump is beneficial to the Republican Party, many of whom are senior Republican senators.
Liz Cheney, chairman of the House Republican Conference, and Senate Majority Leader and Republican Senator Mitch McConnell said that Trump’s behavior was enough to remove him.
In addition, according to US media reports, the Republican Party’s support for Trump’s impeachment this time is to try to eliminate the impact of Trump’s four years in office. To some extent, the Republican impeachment against Trump is a reshuffle of internal power.
However, according to the U.S. Constitution, the impeachment of the president is not limited to “dismissal”, but also includes a series of decisions of civil and criminal crimes.
In addition, the impeached President of the United States will not be the President of the United States again. Therefore, once it is determined that the impeachment is successful, Trump’s chances for another election for President of the United States in 2024 will be blocked.
Impeachment proceedings enter the Senate. What will happen to Trump in the future?
Although McConnell said that he would not accept any House of Representatives requests until Biden took office, the relevant impeachment hearings will be held once the Senate accepts the impeachment of Trump.
Only two-thirds of senators support Trump’s impeachment can Trump be declared successful. According to the first impeachment held in 2019, the impeachment of the president will be an extremely time-consuming tug of war.
However, in 2019, Trump still had a large number of Republican support, when impeachment lasted about two months and finally failed in February 2020.
But in this impeachment, Trump is likely to fight alone, which may shorten the time of impeachment.
If the impeachment of Trump goes forward quickly and is completed by January 20, Vice President Pence will succeed Trump in his term of only a few days or even hours, and President-elect Biden will become the 47th President of the United States.
Even if impeachment was not completed on January 20, as long as the impeachment bill finally reaches two-thirds of the support in the Senate or is convicted of Trump’s “sedition”, Democrats can propose to prohibit Trump from taking office again, thus depriving Trump of the opportunity to run for President of the United States in 2024.
Yes. A vote prohibiting holding public office only requires a simple majority vote to pass.
In addition, the issue of impeachment against Trump at this time will be held in the Senate under the auspices of the Biden administration.
Biden’s Democratic Party won more than half of the Senate seats in the 2020 election.
With the Senate composition after Biden took over and the status quo of a large number of Republicans defecting to the Democratic Party on impeachment matters, Trump still faces a huge “impeachment risk” even after stepping down.
Trump’s previous announcement that he will participate in the 2024 election may also be blocked.
