WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump was impeached Wednesday for a second time after a House vote one week after his angry supporters stormed the Capitol as lawmakers met to affirm President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.
With Biden’s inauguration set for Jan. 20, Trump has just days left in office, but lawmakers voted to impeach him regardless, making Trump the first president in history to be impeached twice. Lawmakers said he violated his presidential oaths to protect and defend democracy. Trump faced a charge of “incitement of insurrection.”
Representatives met in the House Tuesday and urged Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office, but Pence said he wouldn’t do it.
Unlike the first time Trump was impeached in 2019, several Republican lawmakers joined with Democrats, including Republican Reps. Liz Cheney, John Katko, Fred Upton, Jaime Herrera Beutler and Adam Kinzinger.
It won’t be an immediate process. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell rejected the idea of an emergency Senate session for the impeachment trial.