House impeaches Trump for second time — with some GOP support

House lawmakers on Wednesday impeached President Trump for his role in last week’s deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol, capping an extraordinary week of violence, apprehension and partisan brawling in Congress just as Washington cranks up security in preparation for Joe Biden’s inauguration, just a week away.

The 232-197 vote was historic: It made Trump the first president in the country’s history to be impeached twice.

And unlike the first debate, this time the president’s Democratic critics had support across the aisle. Ten Republicans joined every voting Democrat to approve the single impeachment article, which accuses Trump of inciting violence against the same federal government he leads.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who oversaw both impeachment efforts, said Trump’s refusal to concede his election defeat — and his subsequent efforts to rally supporters to the Capitol to overturn the election results — amounted to sedition. The president, she said, gave Congress no choice.

“We know we experienced the insurrection that violated the sanctity of the people’s Capitol,” Pelosi said in a floor speech before the vote. “And we know that the president of the United States incited this insurrection, this armed rebellion, against our common country.

“He must go,” she added. “He is a clear and present danger to the nation that we all love.” 

The most prominent Republican to break with Trump was House Republican Conference Chairwoman Liz Cheney (Wyo.), the No. 3 Republican leader and highest-ranking GOP woman in Congress, who said Trump “summoned the mob,” “lit the flame” of the attack and — despite pleas from his Hill allies — refused to call it off.

“There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution,” Cheney said in a statement.

Her terse, fiery remarks threw fuel on the civil war that’s now raging through the Grand Old Party, pitting Trump’s MAGA supporters against the GOP establishment. A pair of conservative Trump foot soldiers, Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), immediately called on Cheney to resign from leadership and on Wednesday began organizing an effort to oust her from power.

But Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, is remaining defiant. 

“I’m not going anywhere. This is a vote of conscience,” she said before the vote. “It’s one where there are different views in our conference. But our nation is facing an unprecedented — since the Civil War — constitutional crisis.”

In addition to Cheney, the nine other Republicans who voted to impeach Trump were Rep. John Katko (N.Y.), the top Republican on the Homeland Security Committee; Reps. Fred Upton (Mich.) and Jamie Herrera Beutler (Wash.), co-chairs of the centrist Tuesday Group with Katko; Reps. Adam Kinzinger (Ill.) and Peter Meijer (Mich.), both war veterans; and Reps. Anthony Gonzalez (Ohio), David Valadao (Calif.), Tom Rice (S.C.), and Dan Newhouse (Wash.).

The events of Jan. 6 were unprecedented by any gauge. After months of false claims that he had won the election, only to have it stolen by rampant fraud, Trump addressed thousands of supporters near the White House last Wednesday, urging them to march on the Capitol just as Congress — joined by Vice President Pence — was voting to certify Biden’s victory.

“If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore,” Trump said.

Shortly afterward, thousands of protesters arrived at the Capitol, where they quickly overwhelmed the Capitol Police, some of whom were maced and beaten with iron bars. The marauders marched through the sprawling building, smashing windows, ransacking member offices and attempting to storm onto the House and Senate floors while lawmakers, staff and reporters scrambled for cover.

Five people died during the riot, including Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who was struck by a fire extinguisher, and a California woman who was fatally shot by another officer as she tried to storm the Speaker’s lobby just off the House floor.

Trump, for his part, has denied any responsibility for the deadly violence, saying his speech was “totally appropriate.” He also has not expressed regret for his actions, though on Wednesday, as the impeachment debate continued, he issued a statement that called for their to be no violence or vandalism amid reports of new demonstrations planned for next week’s inauguration of Biden. 

The impeachment vote will lead to a trial in the Senate, though the timing and outcome in the upper chamber are unclear.

In a remarkable statement, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) declared Wednesday that he had not determined how he would vote in the trial, saying he would listen to the legal arguments.

The first time Trump was impeached, there was clear opposition from Senate Republicans and only one GOP senator, Sen. Mitt Romney (Utah), voted in favor of one article of impeachment. 

It seems likely more Republicans would vote to impeach Trump this time, though it will be after he leaves office and it is unclear whether there will be the 67 votes necessary to convict him. 

If all Democrats vote to impeach, which is not a certainty in the Senate, 17 Republican votes would be needed to convict.

The long-term implications of both the Capitol siege and Trump’s second impeachment remain unclear. 

Republicans opposing the impeachment effort in the House did not all defend Trump’s actions surrounding the Capitol assault; in fact, many condemned it. But they also warned that taking the drastic step of attempting to remove the president would only exacerbate the country’s already cavernous political divisions, inflaming the resentment of the president’s supporters — and perhaps leading to greater violence down the road.

Taking the floor just before the vote, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), a staunch Trump loyalist, conceded that Trump “bears responsibility” for Wednesday’s assault. But he quickly cautioned that impeachment “would further divide this nation” and “would further fan the flames of partisan division.”

“As history shows, unity is not an option, it’s a necessity,” he said.

That argument fell flat with Democrats, however, who wasted no time pointing to the many instances when Trump had divided the country with attacks on his political opponents — Democrat and Republican — with the blessing of his allies in Congress.

The Democrats’ impeachment article charged Trump with misleading the country by falsely claiming a “landslide” victory in an election he lost, then whipping up a volatile crowd with violence-laced pleas to fight back against the electoral process. As a result, the article charged, Trump had “threatened the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful transition of power, and imperiled a coequal branch of Government.”

The resolution was sponsored by Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), a constitutional law expert whose personal story over the past two weeks has been every bit as hectic — and tragic — as the experience on Capitol Hill.

On New Year’s Eve, Raskin lost his 25-year-old son to suicide. A week later, he was among the lawmakers evacuated from the chamber as the mob invaded, whisked to a secure spot in the House office buildings even as members of his family, including one of his daughters, was stuck in the Capitol behind barricaded doors. And on Wednesday, the House approved his impeachment resolution, with plenty of room to spare.

As Pelosi brought the gavel down on the vote, several lawmakers approached Raskin to salute his victory.

As remarkable as it was to have the president impeached — again — just days before his departure, the process on the floor was all-but overshadowed by the extraordinary scene outside the House chamber, where thousands of National Guard troops had arrived in the Capitol ahead of Biden’s inauguration.

The astonishing show of force was just one element of the massive effort to boost security across the Capitol complex heading into the Jan. 20 transition of power.

Federal law enforcers are already warning of a heightened risk of violence surrounding the event. And the Capitol, the Supreme Court and the surrounding office buildings have all been encircled in an imposing 8-foot-tall fence. Behind it, Guard troops are patrolling continuously. Unlike the scene on Jan. 6, many of them are carrying military-style semi-automatic rifles.

The startling landscape rattled some lawmakers, who are concerned about the prospects of uniting the country in the wake of Trump’s volatile tenure.

“How do we find any common ground with the 40 percent of people who still believe the president?” asked Rep Ro Khanna (D-Calif.). “You can kick him off of Twitter. You can impeach him. You can hold him to account. But that’s not going to break through a huge population … who believe the reality that Trump has created.

“We are at a time of divergent realities.”

Updated at 5:31 p.m.