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Transition – January 14, 2021
TrueNewsblog- TNB
By: Nathaniel Ballantyne
(TrueNewsBlog) – The second impeachment of President Donald Trump by the U.S. House of Representatives, for inciting last week’s deadly rampage at the Capitol, could set off a bitter Senate fight that entangles the early days of President-elect Joe Biden’s term.
Trump became the first president in U.S. history to be impeached twice when the House voted 232-197 on Wednesday to charge him with inciting the riot. Ten of Trump’s fellow Republicans joined Democrats in approving the article of impeachment.
But the swift impeachment is unlikely to lead to Trump’s ouster before Biden takes office on Jan. 20. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, rejected Democratic calls for a quick impeachment trial, saying there was no way to finish it before Trump leaves office.
That raised the prospect of a bitter trial in the Senate during Biden’s first days in the White House, something he urged Senate leaders to avoid. Biden said work on the economy, getting the coronavirus vaccine program on track and confirming crucial Cabinet posts was too crucial to delay.
“I hope that the Senate leadership will find a way to deal with their Constitutional responsibilities on impeachment while also working on the other urgent business of this nation,” Biden said in a statement on Wednesday night.
The House passed one article of impeachment – equivalent to an indictment in a criminal trial – accusing Trump of “incitement of insurrection,” focused on an incendiary speech he delivered to thousands of supporters shortly before the riot. In the speech, Trump repeated false claims that the election was fraudulent and exhorted supporters to march on the Capitol.
The mob disrupted Congress’s certification of Biden’s victory over Trump in the Nov. 3 election, sent lawmakers into hiding and left five people dead, including a police officer.
