Trump impeached for historic second time

By staff and wire reports

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump was impeached by the U.S. House for a historic second time Wednesday, charged with “incitement of insurrection” over the deadly mob siege of the Capitol in a swift and stunning collapse of his final days in office.
With the Capitol secured by armed National Guard troops inside and out, the House voted 232-197 to impeach Trump. The proceedings moved at lightning speed, with lawmakers voting just one week after violent pro-Trump loyalists stormed the U.S. Capitol, egged on by the president’s calls for them to “fight like hell” against the election results.
Ten Republicans fled Trump, joining Democrats who said he needed to be held accountable and warned ominously of a “clear and present danger” if Congress should leave him unchecked before Democrat Joe Biden’s inauguration Jan. 20.
Trump is the only U.S. president to be twice impeached.
The Capitol insurrection stunned and angered lawmakers, who were sent scrambling for safety as the mob descended, and it revealed the fragility of the nation’s history of peaceful transfers of power. The riot also forced a reckoning among some Republicans, who have stood by Trump throughout his presidency and largely allowed him to spread false attacks against the integrity of the 2020 election.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi invoked Abraham Lincoln and the Bible, imploring lawmakers to uphold their oath to defend the Constitution from all enemies, foreign “and domestic.”
She said of Trump: “He must go, he is a clear and present danger to the nation that we all love.”
Closer to home, local lawmakers were divided on the impeachment vote.
Congressman Mike Doyle, D-Forest Hills, voted to impeach the president, while Congressman Guy Reschenthaler, R-Peters Township, voted against impeaching Trump.
“I voted in favor of impeaching Donald Trump,” Doyle said. “The President must be impeached for inciting an angry mob to violently attack our Capitol and our democracy. It is clear that he must not only be removed from office but also barred from holding office again. This bipartisan resolution ensures that no one is above the law and sets a precedent of accountability for every future President.”
But Reschenthaler, a staunch Trump supporter, said impeaching the president does more harm than good.
“At a time when our nation is still healing, we must seek out the issues that unite us rather than those that further divide us,” Reschenthaler said. “With just seven days left in President Trump’s term, they are fast-tracking impeachment proceedings, a move which will no doubt further divide our already fractured nation.
“Even House Democrats’ last impeachment effort, which was rushed through in record time, at the very least included expert input, depositions, hearings and deliberation. This latest attempt to impeach the president ignores all precedent and due process. And it cannot be voted on in the Senate before President-elect Biden is sworn into office.”
Holed up at the White House, watching the proceedings on TV, Trump took no responsibility for the bloody riot seen around the world, but issued a statement urging “NO violence, NO lawbreaking and NO vandalism of any kind” to disrupt Biden’s ascension to the White House.
In the face of the accusations against him and with the FBI warning of more violence, Trump said, “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.”
Trump was first impeached by the House in 2019 over his dealings with Ukraine, but the Senate voted in 2020 acquit. He is the first to be impeached twice. None has been convicted by the Senate, but Republicans said Wednesday that could change in the rapidly shifting political environment as officeholders, donors, big business and others peel away from the defeated president.

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