Second Impeachment Of Donald Trump

Submission 22,807

Part of a series on January 6th, 2021, Storming of the United States Capitol. [View Related Entries]

Overview

Second Impeachment of Donald Trump refers to the article of impeachment introduced by United States House Democrats against Donald Trump for inciting the 2021 Storming Of The Capitol. The article references Trump's speech outside the White House before the Capitol riot, where he told supporters, "If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore." It also states Trump is in violation of the 14th amendment to the United States Constitution, which prohibits any person who has engaged in insurrection against the United States from holding office. The article also references Trump's myriad bogus claims of election fraud and his phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, where he implored Raffensperger to "find" him 11,000 more votes. Introduced January 11th, 2021, the United States House of Representatives voted on the measure on January 13th, and voted to impeach the President. Trump was later acquitted by the Senate, though a majority of Senators voted to impeach him. Impeachment required a two-thirds majority of Senators to vote for impeachment, and the Senate voted 57 in favor and 43 against.

Background

On January 6th, 2021, as the United States Senate was preparing to certify Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 United States Presidential Election, Donald Trump gave a speech to his supporters outside the White House. During the speech, he stated, "If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore." Hours later, the crowd laid siege to the Capitol Building.^[1]

Following the riot, many Democrats were vocal in their support of removing Trump from office in the final two weeks of his Presidency. House Democrats called on Mike Pence to invoke the 25th amendment of the constitution, which would require Pence and a majority of Trump's cabinet to vote that Trump was unable to perform his duties as President, thus removing Trump and making Pence President for the final weeks of Trump's term.^[2] Nancy Pelosi stated that if Pence did not invoke the 25th amendment, she would bring articles of impeachment to the House. On January 11th, 2021, after Republicans blocked Democratic calls for Pence to invoke the 25th, House Democrats introduced an article of impeachment against Trump. The bill^[3] is sponsored by Representatives Cicilline, Lieu, Nadler and Raskin, among others.

The article claims that Trump is guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors in his efforts to undermine the 2020 election and his role in inciting the Capitol Riot. It also states Trump is in violation of the 14th amendment, which states no one who has incited insurrection against the United States can hold public office.

Developments

NPR^[4] reported the measure could be voted on in the House as early as January 13th. Representative Cicilline tweeted that House Democrats "had the votes" to impeach.^[6] AP News^[5] reported it was "likely" House Democrats would wait until after Biden's first 100 days in office to send the article to the Senate, which would mean that while Trump is not removed from office by impeachment, he would be barred from running for office again. AP noted that while some Republican senators like Marco Rubio came out against the idea, others like Lisa Murkowski and Pat Toomey seemed more inclined to vote towards impeachment.

On January 13th, the House of Representatives voted to impeach Donald Trump, with ten Republicans joining the Democrats in the vote.

Trial and Acquittal

The Senate trial of Trump's second impeachment began on February 9th, 2021 and lasted until February 13th, ending with his acquittal, though a majority of Senators, including all forty-eight Democrats, two Independents, and seven Republicans, voted to impeach him.^[7] The Constitution requires a two-thirds Senate majority to impeach a President.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell voted to acquit Trump but was stern in his condemnation of the former President's role in the January 6th storming of the Capitol, saying, "President Trump's actions that preceded the riot was a disgraceful -- disgraceful -- dereliction of duty. There is no question, none, that President Trump is practically, and morally, responsible for provoking the events of the day. No question about it" (shown below). Political analysts suspect McConnell wanted to impeach Trump but sided with his party because he would be unable to lead the Republicans in the Senate if he broke with them.^[8] Vox^[8] also wrote that Senators may have moved through the trial quickly due to a looming, pre-planned vacation and knowledge that there was no chance of a conviction.

The trial featured multiple videos showing unseen footage from the riot at the Capitol, underscoring how close rioters were to coming in contact with targets such as Mitt Romney and Mike Pence (shown below).^[7]