The US House of Representatives voted Wednesday to impeach President Donald Trump for the second time in his four-year term.
The new Article of Impeachment from the House contains a single charge of “Incitement of Insurrection” for Trump’s role in the events that took place at the Capitol Building last week. The article alleges that during the Electoral Vote count in Congress last Wednesday, Trump continued to issue false claims about election fraud and told the crowd “if you don’t fight like hell you’re not going to have a country anymore,” which precipitated the violent acts on the Capitol.
The Article of Impeachment passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 232-197. The vote was bipartisan with 10 Republicans breaking ranks to vote with the Democrats for impeachment. The passing of this Article of Impeachment makes Trump the only president in American history to be impeached twice.
The Article of Impeachment now heads to the Senate, which is required under Article I, Section 3 of the US Constitution to convene an impeachment trial and hear the case. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has stated that he intends to hear the impeachment but will not convene the Senate until after Joe Biden has been sworn in as the 46th President of the United States. Biden’s inauguration is expected to take place as scheduled next week on January 20, but security has been significantly increased with the addition of 20,000 National Guard Troops in light of last week’s events.