January 11th local time, the U.S. House of Representatives announced that it would vote on the impeachment of President Trump as early as January 13. The impeachment clause has now been officially introduced, and Trump has been accused of “seriously endangering the security of the United States and its government agencies, threatening the integrity of democracy, and interfering with the peaceful transition of power”.
The media pointed out that no president has ever been impeached twice in a single term in American history. Nowadays, the internal affairs situation of the United States is not only “unusual”, but also there is a huge gap of opinion among the whole society about who endangers national democracy.
Impeachment charges Trump of “sedition” and votes up to 48 hours at the earliest
In the articles of impeachment formally introduced by the House of Representatives, Trump reportedly charged with inciting supporters to launch a rebellion in front of the Capitol on January 6 and again falsely claiming that he had won the election.” President Trump has seriously endangered the security of the United States and its government agencies, threatened the integrity of democracy, interfered with the peaceful transition of power, and the accusation also states that “Trump betrayed public trust in the president.”
The House of Representatives is now in the voting countdown state and gives Vice President Pence 24 hours of action time. If the Cabinet cannot initiate the 25th Amendment to the Constitution within the deadline, and the Vice President and the Cabinet will remove the President from office, the House of Representatives will vote on the impeachment resolution.
That is to say, between the two options of recall and impeachment, if Pence does not choose to recall, the House of Representatives will choose impeachment. At present, as many as 218 representatives have expressed support for impeachment, which obviously ensures that the impeachment clause will be passed once the vote is taken.
Two impeachments in one term, and the United States is “extraordinary” at this moment.
Public opinion generally believes that the political moment currently experienced by the United States is “extraordinary”. Impeachment of the president has raised new problems in politics, constitution, handover and other aspects. In the history of the United States, no president has been impeached at the last moment of his term of office, nor has any president ever been convicted.
The media generally pointed out that only three U.S. presidents have been impeached, including Trump, and Trump has set a record for two impeachments in one term.
In December 2019, the House of Representatives made the first attempt to impeach Trump, accusing him of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, and tried to pressure Ukraine to discredit its political opponent Biden, but the Senate voted to ablict both charges. The latest impeachment clause now points out that Trump not only sedesurgency, but also called Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State to “find” enough votes for him to win the state after the election.
Impeachment charges are easier to convict than to, and may not be achieved before the president leaves office.
In fact, in the United States, impeachment of the president is an extremely difficult process. Although the impeachment clause can make charges, the final decision will also be made by the Senate, thus setting a considerable threshold for conviction.
Under the impeachment proceedings, two-thirds of the senators present in the final ruling must agree to the conviction, and the impeachment can pass, otherwise the president will be acquitted. Assuming that all 100 senators are present at the trial, it will mean that 17 Republican senators must join the ranks of Democratic senators and vote in favor of guilt before conviction is possible. Obviously, this is a high threshold.
Moreover, the Senate is not currently planning to return to Congress before January 19, so it will be difficult for Trump to be impeached before leaving office even if the House of Representatives initiates and passes impeachment proceedings in the next few days and the Senate is not working.
However, even if it is difficult, it is not meaningless for Congress to launch impeachment again at this time. Because of the precedent of senior government officials being impeached after leaving office in American history, Trump, as a former president, can still be impeached, which will leave a stain on his political career and may block the way for him to run for president again or hold office. Because there have been rumors that Trump will make a comeback in the 2024 election.
Republicans are “enough” with Trump, but fear that launching impeachment will trigger national division.
After the congressional protests on January 6, many Republican lawmakers, even former Trump followers, have now wavered. Former acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney told the media that the events of January 6 “changed everything.” On January 6, Trump told his supporters that if they could not “swear to the death”, the United States would no longer exist.
Even former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a longtime ally of Trump, said that Trump was enough to be impeached. “If that’s not enough to be impeached, then I don’t know what else can be done,” Christie said. He said that he and his Republican colleagues had “fed up” with Trump.
However, it is understood that at present, there is still no agreement within the Republican Party on how to end. There are concerns that impeachment will “add fuel to the fire” and further divide the country, and violence may follow in major cities.
Polls show that the United States is becoming more and more divided, and extremism has become the biggest problem.
According to a new poll released on the 11th local time, only 21% of voters in the United States currently think democracy is still healthy, and nearly three-quarters of voters believe that democracy is under threat, but there is still a big difference as to who caused the threat.
According to the survey conducted by Quinnipiac University in the United States, 56% of voters believe that President Trump is responsible for the protests in the U.S. Congress, while 42% of voters oppose it. Voters who are for and against 52% and 45% respectively, are voting on whether Trump should be removed or resign. It can be seen that there is a huge political gap in American society.
The poll also found that people have different views on who is the culprit of the division of the United States. Some people think it is the people who participated in the protest demonstrations, some people think it is a congressional Republican who opposes the certification of Biden’s vote, and some people think that Trump should be held accountable.
But it can be confirmed that up to 81% of voters have begun to agree that extremism has become a huge problem in the United States, and the United States is on the road of differentiation and going to different extremes.
