The House will move closer Monday to impeaching President Donald Trump an unprecedented second time, this time for inciting his supporters who invaded the U.S. Capitol during Congress’ electoral vote count last week.
Democrats plan to introduce an article of impeachment Monday that charges Trump with high crimes and misdemeanors for whipping up an insurrection and disrupting the peaceful transfer of power. The three lawmakers leading the effort — Reps. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., David Cicilline, D-R.I., and Ted Lieu, D-Calif. — say 210 House members have co-sponsored the measure.
It puts them just shy of the 218-vote majority needed to impeach Trump in the House, though the number could end up lower due to vacancies and absences. Democrats hold 222 seats.
Although there are only eight days left for the Trump administration, impeaching him could bar him from public office in the future.
In a letter to Democrats on Sunday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also said her party would attempt to pass Raskin’s resolution calling on Vice President Mike Pence and the Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office. Democrats will try to approve the measure unanimously during Monday’s 11 a.m. ET pro forma session but will bring it to a full vote Tuesday if they cannot, Pelosi said.
“In protecting our Constitution and our Democracy, we will act with urgency, because this President represents an imminent threat to both,” she wrote. “As the days go by, the horror of the ongoing assault on our democracy perpetrated by this President is intensified and so is the immediate need for action.”
The House will likely vote to impeach Trump by later this week, only a few days before President-elect Joe Biden will take office one week from Wednesday. Democrats say taking no action against Trump before then raises the threat of more violence and lets the president off unscathed for spurring a mob that stormed the Capitol, resulting in the deaths of a police officer and four other people, and threatened the lives of Pence and lawmakers. A second police officer died off-duty this weekend, and the cause of death has not been disclosed.
Trump exhorted his supporters outside the White House to march on the Capitol shortly before the Capitol siege and repeated lies that widespread fraud cost him the November election. On the day of the vote tally, he falsely claimed Pence had the power to stop the vote count himself and send the process back to states.
The Senate likely will not have time to convict Trump and remove him before the president leaves office. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said in a memo that the chamber would not receive impeachment articles earlier than Jan. 19, according to NBC News. The Senate must promptly start a trial once it receives articles of impeachment from the House.
House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., told CNN on Sunday that the House may delay sending articles to the Senate until after Biden’s first 100 days in office….
Read More: House prepares to impeach Trump for inciting the U.S. Capitol riot