A week ago, President Donald Trump fueled a violent insurrection at the Capitol. Yesterday, the House of Representatives impeached him.
The Capitol's security was heavily criticized during the riots that left at least five people dead but it was abundantly clear that no one was taking any chances during the House vote.
Security was heightened on Wednesday all around the Capitol, with barricades set several blocks from the building and law enforcement and national guard officials checking badges for anyone to enter the perimeter even by foot.
Inside the building, the contrast was even bigger. Instead of an angry mob, there were National Guard personnel, making a home in the massive Rotunda and near two entrances of the building, including the entrance typically used by the president-elect on inauguration day that just one week ago was targeted by rioters.
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OK, so the House of Representatives voted 232-197 to impeach Trump. But what does that mean? An impeachment proceeding is a formal process by which a sitting president of the United States is accused of wrongdoing—it's a political process. Not a criminal process.
The process begins in the House of Representatives. There, any member may make a suggestion to launch an impeachment proceeding. Next, the Speaker of the House, as leader of the majority party, is to determine whether or not to proceed with an inquiry into the alleged wrongdoing.
Over 210 House Democrats introduced the most recent article of impeachment on Jan. 11, 2021, contending Trump "demonstrated that he will remain a threat to national security, democracy, and the Constitution if allowed to remain in office and has acted in a manner grossly incompatible with self-governance and the rule of law."
The impeachment article also cited Trump's call with Georgia's Republican Secretary of State where the president told him to "find" enough votes for Trump to win the state and his efforts to "subvert and obstruct" certification of the vote.
It also cited the Constitution's 14th Amendment, highlighting that it "prohibits any person who has 'engaged in insurrection or rebellion against' the United States" from holding office.
The vote requires a simple majority vote, which is 50% plus one (218), which impeaches the president. Trump now faces a trial on the article in the Senate.
Both the timeline of a potential Senate trial and the likelihood of conviction are still unclear. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said he won't bring back the Senate from recess before Jan. 19, which could push the trial into the beginning of the Biden administration.
The Senate is tasked with handling the impeachment trial, which is presided over by the Chief Justice of the United States. To remove a president from office, two-thirds of the members must vote in favor. While the Senate trial has the power to remove a president from office and ban them from running for future office, it can't send a president to jail.
"You all said my travel pillow wouldn't come in handy, well look how that turned out!"
Not my op-ed to sort out, but this makes me f*****g sick, fwiw. I have spent my whole life in this country where people just look at places like Bosnia, Syria, South Africa, Korea and so many other countries and ask themselves "how can anyone let their home turn into a militarized country like that? Camo and policing everywhere, making people adhere to curfews..." etc. THIS IS WHAT THAT LOOKS LIKE! Congratulations, USA, you've done it. You've managed to, ignorantly, put yourself in the same state as those countries that you bad-mouth because you "can't understand what happened". This happened. This is what that "martial" society looks like. This is what happens when you can't just remember people are, wait for it, P E O P L E. Human beings. Not Red, not Blue, not anything other than people. We've done this to ourselves and it's honestly disturbing that "no one saw it coming". smh
Trust me, I saw it coming. As soon as Trump was elected I knew it was all going to be downhill from there. But I'm in the UK, so I'm just sitting back and watching Bojack Horseman (Boris Johnson) be useless and insist that Trump was a good leader.
Load More Replies...Just to clarify, these people are members of the National Guard, not the Army. The Guard is comprised of volunteer members at the state (not Federal) level who train twice a month, and are called in for emergencies such as protests, national disasters, etc. They are wearing uniforms, which happen to be camo, and they are just doing their job. It is disgusting that a few fringe extremists took away everything we (U.S. citizens) hold dear, and embarrassed the nation on a global scale, but please don’t criticize everyday citizens for earning a living and trying to protect our lawmakers. I am a Republican who, for the first time in 40 years, voted Democratic. Not all conservatives in this country supported Trump.
How so? You mean the media lying to us for four years? You mean the democrat party claiming for four freaking years that Trump was illegitimate. You mean the democrats applauding the rioting in cities that burned down people homes and business and got maany people killed? Have we not had someone scream that an election was a fraud? Are you dense? That is all democrats have ever done. The democrats would NOT look at ANY of the evidence. Hell, it all may have been lies but no one would even consider whether the fraud claims were real. Judges NEVER even looked at it. They threw it out without looking.
Load More Replies...Not my op-ed to sort out, but this makes me f*****g sick, fwiw. I have spent my whole life in this country where people just look at places like Bosnia, Syria, South Africa, Korea and so many other countries and ask themselves "how can anyone let their home turn into a militarized country like that? Camo and policing everywhere, making people adhere to curfews..." etc. THIS IS WHAT THAT LOOKS LIKE! Congratulations, USA, you've done it. You've managed to, ignorantly, put yourself in the same state as those countries that you bad-mouth because you "can't understand what happened". This happened. This is what that "martial" society looks like. This is what happens when you can't just remember people are, wait for it, P E O P L E. Human beings. Not Red, not Blue, not anything other than people. We've done this to ourselves and it's honestly disturbing that "no one saw it coming". smh
Trust me, I saw it coming. As soon as Trump was elected I knew it was all going to be downhill from there. But I'm in the UK, so I'm just sitting back and watching Bojack Horseman (Boris Johnson) be useless and insist that Trump was a good leader.
Load More Replies...Just to clarify, these people are members of the National Guard, not the Army. The Guard is comprised of volunteer members at the state (not Federal) level who train twice a month, and are called in for emergencies such as protests, national disasters, etc. They are wearing uniforms, which happen to be camo, and they are just doing their job. It is disgusting that a few fringe extremists took away everything we (U.S. citizens) hold dear, and embarrassed the nation on a global scale, but please don’t criticize everyday citizens for earning a living and trying to protect our lawmakers. I am a Republican who, for the first time in 40 years, voted Democratic. Not all conservatives in this country supported Trump.
How so? You mean the media lying to us for four years? You mean the democrat party claiming for four freaking years that Trump was illegitimate. You mean the democrats applauding the rioting in cities that burned down people homes and business and got maany people killed? Have we not had someone scream that an election was a fraud? Are you dense? That is all democrats have ever done. The democrats would NOT look at ANY of the evidence. Hell, it all may have been lies but no one would even consider whether the fraud claims were real. Judges NEVER even looked at it. They threw it out without looking.
Load More Replies...