By Janet Hook and Jennifer Haberkorn
Los Angeles Times
WASHINGTON — Donald J. Trump became the first president in U.S. history to be impeached twice, as a bipartisan House majority Wednesday voted to charge him with inciting insurrection by his supporters, who stormed the Capitol to block ratification of Joe Biden’s electoral victory.
It was a defining moment that will likely eclipse any policy accomplishments of Trump’s presidency — such as his tax cuts, deregulation of business and remaking of the federal judiciary — and illustrated how far he has fallen in the year since his last impeachment and trial, when all but one Republican in Congress stood by him.
The 232-197 House vote Wednesday came exactly one week after the Capitol suffered its most violent assault since the British burned it in the War of 1812.
One casualty of last week’s Capitol siege seemed to be Trump’s iron grip on the GOP. In the final vote, 10 Republicans, including No. 3 GOP leader Rep. Liz Cheney, joined 222 Democrats in approving one article of impeachment.
The debate shifts to the Senate, where a trial is not expected to be held until after Trump leaves office Jan. 20.
The emotional debate split lawmakers not so much over whether Trump was to blame for the violence, but over whether he should be impeached with just one week left to his presidency.
“The president of the United States incited this insurrection and this armed rebellion,” said Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., speaking in a Capitol still reeling from last week’s siege, now safeguarded by more military troops than are currently stationed in Afghanistan. “He must go. He is a clear and present danger to the nation we all love.”
House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., voted against impeachment, but for the first time publicly blamed Trump for the insurrection.
“The president bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by mob rioters,” he said on the House floor. “He should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding.”
In a major break with the president he has loyally served for four years, a furious Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is considering supporting Trump’s conviction when it comes to a trial in the Senate, according to sources familiar with his thinking.
In a memo to GOP colleagues Wednesday, McConnell did not deny widespread reports about his openness to conviction. “I have 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,” he said.
If McConnell came down in favor of conviction, it could open a path for other Republicans to seize an opportunity to make a clean break with an increasingly unpopular and erratic president. Senior Republicans estimated that no more than 10 to 12 members would vote for impeachment.
The fast-moving scene of political tumult is an appropriate coda for a Trump career that has broken precedent, norms and laws at every turn. Even in the Senate, Republicans are beginning to envision what was unthinkable just days ago: that there might be enough votes to produce the two-thirds majority needed to convict Trump, although most likely not until he is out of office.
If McConnell ultimately supported conviction, members of his leadership team would likely follow the leader’s vote. Other Republicans have already signaled openness, including Sens. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Ben Sasse of Nebraska. Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah was the only Republican to support conviction last year.
Timing is a wild card, and McConnell on Wednesday rejected a request by Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer of New York that they invoke emergency authorities to bring the Senate back into session before that. That makes it all but certain that the impeachment trial will not be complete before Biden becomes president.
Biden, worried that a full-time impeachment trial would distract from his administration’s ability to get Cabinet nominations confirmed and his legislative agenda started, has discussed with McConnell the idea of “bifurcating” the Senate’s business to accommodate both a trial and his agenda. Alan Frumin, former Senate parliamentarian, said he saw no obstacle in Senate rules to doing so.
Although there was some talk of the House postponing the delivery of the impeachment articles to the Senate to avoid slowing Joe Biden’s start, Hoyer told reporters Wednesday that they would be transferred as soon as possible.
House Democrats are steadfastly opposed to a delay, arguing that Trump poses a danger while he is in office.
To those who argued that there was not enough time to finish the process before Trump leaves office in the regular course of events, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said as House debate opened, “Is there little time left? Yes. But it is never too late to do the right thing.”
The day began with Trump uncharacteristically silent, his White House barely attempting to defend him against the charge that his speech to thousands of supporters rallying near the Capitol incited them to march on the Capitol to “fight” as the House and Senate were convening for the usually routine counting of Electoral College votes to ratify Biden’s victory.
There were no administration briefings or statements opposing the impeachment. Top advisers were absent from television networks. The president’s once-powerful Twitter account was still silenced, shut off days ago over concerns that he could use it to incite more violence.
It was a sign of how isolated the president has become since the mob attack on the Capitol. He was on track to end his presidency just as his long-shot presidential campaign began in 2015: at odds with many members of his own party.
Mid afternoon, however, Trump released a statement as law enforcement officials warned of potential violence surrounding Biden’s inauguration next week.
“In light of reports of more demonstrations, I urge that there must be NO violence, NO lawbreaking and NO vandalism of any kind. That is not what I stand for, and it is not what America stands for. I call on ALL Americans to help ease tensions and calm tempers. Thank You.”
The House debate began in a setting that spoke more to the exigencies of the moment — the ongoing pandemic and continuing security concerns in the wake of last week’s Capitol siege — than to the historic nature of the day.
The Capitol complex was wrapped in a level of security far higher than last week, surrounded by new fencing and populated with thousands of police, law enforcement officers and troops from several agencies. National Guard troops bivouacked overnight inside the Capitol, sleeping on the cold marble floors.
Lawmakers and staff were required to walk through magnetometers to gain entrance to the chamber, although some resisted the screening devices. Only about 20 people — wearing masks and keeping social distance — were on the House floor when the debate was called to order.
Still, the weight of history hung over the debate as the House approved a presidential impeachment for only the fourth time since the founding.
“What each of us chooses to do today, whether we vote to hold this president to account or look the other way, we will be remembered by history, by our children and their children,” said Rep. Mike Levin, D-Calif.
“Mr. Speaker, we are debating this historic measure at an actual crime scene, and we wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for the president of the United States,” said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass.
Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, one of Trump’s most loyal allies, did not defend the president but portrayed the impeachment effort as part of a broad Democratic effort to undercut or “cancel” Trump’s presidency from the day he was inaugurated.
“It’s always been about getting the president no matter what,” said Jordan, who has said he believed Cheney should be voted out of the leadership for supporting impeachment. “The cancel culture will come for us all.”
Some House Republicans were still visibly shaken by the insurrection in their workplace only one week ago.
“If you work in this building every day, (last Wednesday’s attack) is much more difficult to process. given the nature of this building and the deep respect for it, the deep love. That’s the jarring part for members,” said Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., a member of leadership.
Still, he said most Republicans perceived the impeachment drive to be based on politics, pointing to speculation that House Democrats would hold the articles of impeachment until some of Biden’s Cabinet can be approved. That “tells me they’ve thought through the threat of imminent dangers and this is now political calculation they’ve made on the impeachment vote. That really belies the political nature of it,” he said.
Republicans had political calculations of their own: Many come from safe GOP-dominated districts where their top political threat comes not from a Democratic opponent but from a GOP primary challenge if they cross Trump supporters.
Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Wash., one of the Republicans who voted for impeachment, shrugged off that political threat.
“I’m not afraid of losing my job but I am afraid that my country will fail,” she said. “My vote to impeach our sitting president is not a fear-based decision. I am not choosing a side, I am choosing truth. It’s the only way to defeat fear.”
In her first speech on the House floor, freshman Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., said she sent her children home Monday after she was sworn in, because she was afraid of the rhetoric leading up to Jan. 6.
Although she said of Trump, “I hold him accountable ... for the attack last Wednesday,” Mace said she would not support impeachment because she believed it would divide the nation further.
Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., echoed that concern and said, “Rather than looking ahead to a new administration, the majority is again seeking to settle scores against the old one."
The 10 House Republicans who voted for impeachment was a record level of support for impeachment from a president’s own party. In addition to Cheney, they were Reps. Herrera Beutler of Washington, Fred Upton of Michigan, Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio, John Katko of New York, Dan Newhouse of Washington, Tom Rice of South Carolina, Peter Meijer of Michigan and David Valadao of California.
When the House voted in 1868 to impeach Andrew Jackson, no Democratic supported the move. When Bill Clinton was impeached in 1998, five Democrats joined with Republicans on three of the four counts against Clinton. No Republicans voted in favor of Trump’s first impeachment in December 2019, though Romney voted for one count in the Senate trial.
