Washington: Donald Trump is facing a historic second impeachment after Democrats in the House of Representatives formally charged him with one count of “incitement of insurrection” over the Capitol Hill riot. Five people died in the attack last week, including a police officer, which Trump prompted when he told supporters to “fight like hell” in his attempt to overturn election defeat by Joe Biden. Emerging video footage has revealed just how close the mob came to a potentially deadly confrontation with members of Congress.
On Monday, security officials scrambled to ensure that Biden’s inauguration next week would not be marred by further violence. The US Secret Service will begin carrying out its special security arrangements for the inauguration this Wednesday, almost a week earlier than originally planned, although on Monday afternoon the acting secretary of homeland security, Chad Wolf, abruptly resigned, just days after calling the Capitol invasion “sickening”.
Earlier, ABC News said it had obtained an internal FBI bulletin which detailed plans for “armed protests” and calls for the “storming” of state, local and federal courthouses and buildings across the country if Trump was removed from power before then. On Capitol Hill, the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, said that she would move forward with impeaching Trump if Vice-President Mike Pence did not remove him from office under the 25th amendment to the US constitution.
“The president’s threat to America is urgent, and so too will be our action,” she said in a statement. As expected, Republicans on Monday blocked an effort to approve, by unanimous consent, a non-binding resolution calling on Pence to intervene and strip Trump of his power. That forces a full vote on the measure. Democrats are confident the measure will pass.
A clause in the 25th amendment, never before invoked, describes how members of the cabinet can agree to remove a president under extreme circumstances. Pence, a staunch loyalist until the climax of Trump’s effort to overturn the election, has signaled no intention of joining such a move. If Pence refused to act within 24 hours of the measure’s passage and Trump still had not resigned, Pelosi vowed to begin impeachment proceedings.
The already dim prospect of the vice-president turning on his boss, to whom he has been unfailingly loyal for the past four years, was all but extinguished after a meeting between Trump and Pence on Monday night, the first since a mob of the president’s supporters put the lives of lawmakers at risk.
According to a senior administration official, Trump and Pence agreed that “those who broke the law and stormed the Capitol last week do not represent the America first movement” and “pledged to continue the work on behalf of the country for the remainder of their term”.
On Monday, lawmakers introduced an impeachment article charging Trump with “high crimes and misdemeanors by inciting violence against the government of the United States” and thus having violated his oath of office. The House will debate the charge on Wednesday. The Democratic congressman David Cicilline of Rhode Island, one of the Democrats leading the effort, tweeted that the party had sufficient votes to pass it and impeach Trump a second time – a first in American history. But for him to be removed would require conviction in the Senate.
The Senate is in recess until after the inauguration, and Democratic leaders have said they will not take up impeachment until after the Biden administration has had time to try to have nominees confirmed and to pass key legislation in its first 100 days. A small number of Republicans in the Senate and House have joined Democrats’ effort to remove Trump.
