Day 1,455: TRUMP IMPEACHED AGAIN
Of the four presidential impeachments in American history, Trump has two
Donald Trump made the sort of history that no president wants to make: he became the first in American history to be impeached twice.
Expanded further, of the 20 federal officers ever impeached by the House, Trump is the only one ever impeached twice.
To add insult to injury, it was the most bipartisan presidential impeachment vote ever taken.
The House adopted a single article of impeachment, voting 232 to 197 to charge Mr. Trump with “inciting violence against the government of the United States” and requesting his immediate removal from office and disqualification from ever holding one again.
Ten Republicans joined Democrats in voting to impeach: Representatives Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the party’s №3 leader in the House; Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington; John Katko of New York; Adam Kinzinger of Illinois; Fred Upton of Michigan; Dan Newhouse of Washington; Peter Meijer of Michigan; Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio; David Valadao of California; and Tom Rice of South Carolina.
The defections were a remarkable break from the head of the party by Republicans, who voted unanimously against impeaching Mr. Trump just over a year ago.
Though the Senate trial will likely take place after Joe Biden’s inauguration in a week, it is shaping up to be far less partisan and rigged than Trump’s first impeachment. Republicans are weighing a total excise of Trump from the party.
This time, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, was said to support the effort as a means of purging his party of Mr. Trump, setting up a political and constitutional showdown that could shape the course of American politics when the nation remains dangerously divided.
In a note to Republican colleagues on Wednesday, Mr. McConnell did not deny that he backed the impeachment push, but he said that he had “not made a final decision on how I will vote, and I intend to listen to the legal arguments when they are presented to the Senate.”
Trump shamefully chose to end his time in office by attempting to incite an insurrection at the Capitol and by sowing doubt on the free and fair democratic elections that he lost to Biden. Those actions earned him the right to wear a second scarlet “I” around his neck forever.
In the 245-year history of the U.S. — and despite serving only one term — Trump has managed to hold half of the total number of presidential impeachments.
1,455 days in, 7 to go
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