A bipartisan coalition in the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday voted to impeach President Donald Trump for a single charge of incitement of insurrection stemming from the deadly violence by a mob of his supporters at the U.S. Capitol last week.
The historic vote meant that it was the second time in as many years that Trump has been impeached by the House. It was also the first time in U.S. history that a sitting president has ever been impeached twice. It was also the most bipartisan impeachment vote ever, as 10 Republicans voted against the leader of their own party.
The vote passed with 231 Representatives voting in favor of the impeachment and 197 voting against it, with five people not registering a vote at all.
While the House managed to bring the impeachment vote in seemingly record time, don’t expect the Senate to move as swiftly for Trump’s impeachment trial. The House first has to deliver the article of impeachment to the Senate.
While Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Trump should be impeached, he never said he would vote to convict him and announced Wednesday that the Senate would take up the impeachment trial after Joe Biden is inaugurated on Tuesday.
That means Trump will not be in office when his impeachment trial takes place.
Regardless, there is no guarantee the Senate will vote to convict Trump. It would require two-thirds of the Senate to vote in favor of a conviction in order to secure a guilty verdict.
However, one key difference this time around is that the Senate will be led by Democrats, thanks to the historic election of Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff in their Georgia runoff elections last week. In the event of a tie in the 100-person Senate, Vice President Kamala Harris will have the power to cast the deciding vote. It’s unclear how realistic that prospect will be when the Senate decides to hold Trump’s second impeachment trial.
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House Votes To Impeach Donald Trump A Second Time, A First For U.S. Presidents was originally published on newsone.com
