Donald Trump has become the first United States president to be impeached twice.
On Wednesday, the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives passed the impeachment resolution that charges Trump with "incitement of insurrection." A total of 232 lawmakers, including 10 Republicans, voted in favor of impeachment; 197 voted against it.
The charge stems from the president's role in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, which left five people dead. The mob of Trump supporters breached the building shortly after POTUS urged them to march to the Capitol, where lawmakers were set to certify Joe Biden's Electoral College victory. Trump has repeatedly claimed that his 2020 presidential loss was rigged and has falsely accused the Democrats of "stealing" the election.
"We will not take it anymore and that’s what this is all about. To use a favorite term that all of you people really came up with, we will stop the steal," he told the crowd prior to the riot. "We fight like hell and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore... We want to go back, and we want to get this right because we’re going to have somebody in there that should not be in there and our country will be destroyed, and we’re not going to stand for that."
Though Trump's went on to tell his supporters to "peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard," he has been widely blamed for the deadly events of that day.
"Those insurrectionists were not patriots. They were not part of a political base to be catered to or managed," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said before the vote. "They were domestic terrorists and justice must prevail. But they did not appear out of a vacuum. They were sent here, sent here by the president, with words such as a cry to 'fight like hell.' The president saw the insurrectionists not as the foes of freedom, as they are, but as the means to a terrible goal: the goal of him personally clinging to power."
Trump will now face a second Senate trial; however, Pelosi has not said when she intends to send the impeachment resolution to the upper chamber. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he will not consent to reconvening the Senate from recess before Jan. 19, meaning the trial will likely begin after Biden's inauguration.
"Even if the Senate process were to being this week and move promptly, no final verdict would be reached until after President Trump had left office," McConnell wrote in a statement following Wednesday's vote. "This is not a decision I am making; it is a fact... In light of this reality, I believe it will best serve our nation if Congress and the executive branch spend the next seven days completely focused on facilitating a safe inauguration and an orderly transfer of power to the incoming Biden administration."
If convicted of the charge, Trump may be disqualified from holding a public office ever again.
