Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said the House will vote Wednesday to send an article of impeachment against President Trump to the Senate.
Democrats will charge Trump with “inciting violence against the government of the United States.” Pelosi added that if Trump doesn’t resign or outgoing Vice President Mike Pence doesn’t invoke the 25th Amendment, impeachment is scheduled for 9 am Wednesday.
Many Democrats and even a few Republicans have criticized President Trump and other Republicans for inciting the storm on the Capitol that led to five people dying.
The House Judiciary Committee introduced the single article of impeachment Monday and it already has at least 218 cosponsors, a congressional aide told Politico, which meets the qualification for passing the House.
“Because the timeframe is so short and the need is so immediate and an emergency, we will also proceed on a parallel path in terms of impeachment,” Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) told reporters Monday. “Whether impeachment can pass the United States Senate is not the issue.”
While the impeachment effort is not expected to work, it will make President Trump the first and only U.S. president to be impeached twice. Additionally, with multiple social media networks silencing the president, he will have no true way to respond as he did during his first impeachment.
After the House vote, the article will move to the Senate where outgoing House Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said a trial is likely to begin the day before President-elect Joe Biden‘s inauguration.
“I think we should pass it and the Senate should take it up immediately,” Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI), a lead author of the impeachment resolution, told reporters Monday. “This is urgent. This president represents a real danger to our democracy.”
The biggest difference between this impeachment and the first one Trump went through last year, is this time he doesn’t have the entire Republican Party on his side. Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL.), House GOP Conference Chair Liz Cheney (R-WY), and Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski have all indicated they may vote in favor of impeachment.
Democrats are also trying to convince Reps. John Katko (R- N.Y.), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Fred Upton and Peter Meijer of Michigan, and Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA) to support their cause.