House Democrats introduce single article of impeachment; Republicans block call to invoke 25th Amendment

Dawn breaks at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, Jan. 11, 2021. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is calling for congressional action to rein in President Donald Trump after inciting last week’s deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol. | AP

A single article of impeachment against President Donald Trump over the riot at the U.S. Capitol last week was introduced by House Democrats on Monday, according to a draft of the articles obtained by The Associated Press.

The single charge is “incitement of insurrection.”

• President Donald Trump was already impeached in December 2019. (He was later acquitted by the Senate). He would be the first president in U.S. history to be impeached twice.

The latest

Republicans blocked the House resolution calling on Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment and remove Trump from office, according to the Associated Press.

• Democrats in the House pushed for Pence and the Cabinet to oust Trump from office, saying he is unfit for office after the U.S. Capitol riots.

What’s going on?

Lawmakers will likely introduce the impeachment legislation Monday, with voting to take place midweek. The bill is from Reps. David Cicilline of Rhode Island, Ted Lieu of California, Jamie Raskin of Maryland and Jerrold Nadler of New York.

The four-page impeachment bill draws from

• Trump’s own statements about his election defeat to Democrat Joe Biden.
• His pressure on state officials in Georgia to “find” him more votes.
• His White House rally ahead of the Capitol siege, in which he encouraged thousands of supporters to “fight like hell” before they stormed the building on Wednesday.
• “President Trump gravely endangered the security of the United States and its institutions of Government,” the legislation said.
• The legislation also says that Trump also threatened “the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful transition of power” and “betrayed” trust.

Context

Trump supporters overpowered police, broke through security lines and windows and rampaged through the Capitol, forcing lawmakers to scatter as they were finalizing Biden’s victory over Trump in the Electoral College.

• “He will remain a threat to national security, democracy, and the Constitution if allowed to remain in office,” they wrote.

Reaction

Scott Applewhite, Associated Press

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., holds a news conference on the day after violent protesters loyal to President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Congress, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 7, 2021.

• Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Ca., said Monday on CBS, “We need to move forward with alacrity.”

Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., joined Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska over the weekend in calling for Trump to “resign and go away as soon as possible.”

• “I think the president has disqualified himself from ever, certainly, serving in office again,” Toomey said. “I don’t think he is electable in any way.”
• Murkowski, long exasperated with the president, told the Anchorage Daily News on Friday that Trump simply “needs to get out.” A third, Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., did not go that far, but on Sunday warned Trump to be “very careful” in his final days in office.

• “During an interview on “60 Minutes” that aired Sunday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi invoked the Watergate era when Republicans in the Senate told President Richard Nixon, “It’s over.”
• “That’s what has to happen now,” she said.

• Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said that instead of coming together, Democrats want to “talk about ridiculous things like ‘Let’s impeach a president’” with just days left in office.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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