With few days to leave White House, President Donald Trump is facing impeachment charge as House Democrats, Monday, formally introduced their resolution to boot him out of office, CNN reports.
The democrats are charging him with “incitement of insurrection” when his supporters violently breached the US Capitol last Wednesday.
The impeachment resolution that the House is set to vote on later this week is the Democrats’ first step toward making Trump the first president in history to be impeached twice.
House Democrats impeached Trump in December 2019 on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, but the Republican-controlled Senate voted not to convict him.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., tried to pass a resolution prepared by Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md that calls on Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office, but House Republicans blocked the request.
Democrats will now hold a floor vote on the legislation as early as Tuesday, according to CNN.
The resolution, which was introduced by Democrats David Cicilline of Rhode Island, Jamie Raskin of Maryland and Ted Lieu of California, during a brief session of the House cited the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, noting that it “prohibits any person who has ‘engaged in insurrection or rebellion against’ the United States” from holding office, the report said.
The impeachment article also points to Trump’s repeated false claims that he won the election and his speech to the crowd on January 6 before pro-Trump rioters breached the Capitol.
It also cites Trump’s January 2 phone call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger urging him to “find” enough votes to overturn the state’s election results as part of his effort “to subvert and obstruct the certification of the results of the 2020 presidential election.”
“We cannot allow this unprecedented provocation to go unanswered,” Raskin, Lieu, and Cicilline said in a statement.
“Everyone involved in this assault must be held accountable, beginning with the man most responsible for it, President Donald Trump. We cannot begin to heal the soul of this country without first delivering swift justice to all its enemies foreign and domestic.”
The measure, which has more than 200 Democratic co-sponsors, says Trump “gravely endangered the security of the United States and its institutions of government.
‘’He threatened the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful transition of power, and imperiled a coequal branch of government. He thereby betrayed his trust as president, to the manifest injury of the people of the United States.
The measure also said Trump has “demonstrated that he will remain a threat to national security, democracy, and the Constitution if allowed to remain in office, and has acted in a manner grossly incompatible with self-governance and the rule of law.”
“President Trump this warrants impeachment and trial, removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States,” the resolution says Cicilline told CNN on Monday that he supports sending impeachment articles to the Senate right away.
He said, “We have the numbers” already to impeach Trump, and he predicted some Republicans would vote for it, too, unlike the House’s December 2019 votes to impeach Trump
“I expect that we’ll have Republican support,” Cicilline said. “I think it’s urgent that the president be removed immediately.”
This comes after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told her colleagues on Sunday evening that the House would proceed with bringing an impeachment resolution to the floor this week unless Pence invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from power.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said on Monday that he expects the vote to impeach Trump to occur on Wednesday, and he wants the articles sent to the Senate without delay.
Meanwhile, Chad Wolf, acting Secretary of Homeland Security, has resigned.
