We told you so' - Lawmakers comment on House vote to impeach Trump for second time

Source:- Newzee



The House of Representatives on Wednesday (January 13) made Donald Trump the first U.S. president ever to be impeached twice, formally charging him with inciting an insurrection just a week after a violent mob of his supporters stormed the Capitol.
The vote in the Democratic-controlled House was 232-197 following a deadly assault on American democracy, with 10 Republicans joining the Democrats in backing impeachment of the president in his waning days in power.
"Republicans said we didn't need to impeach him because he learned his lesson, so no need to remove him. Well we said if we didn't remove him, he would do it again. Simply put, we told you so," Democrat Cedric Richmond, of Louisiana, said.
"To know that we have a sitting president that has, in word and deed, incited an insurrection and led a rebellion against our government has been really heartbreaking," Ilhan Omar, a Democrat from Minnesota, said after voting to impeach Trump.
But it appeared unlikely that the extraordinarily swift impeachment would lead to Trump's ouster before the Republican president's four-year term ends and Democratic President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated on Jan. 20.
The Senate's Republican majority leader, Mitch McConnell, rejected Democratic calls for an immediate impeachment trial, saying there was no time to conclude a trial before Trump leaves office.
The House passed a single article of impeachment - a formal charge - accusing Trump of "incitement of insurrection," focused on an incendiary speech he delivered to thousands of supporters shortly before the pro-Trump mob rampaged through the Capitol. The mob disrupted the formal 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.
During his speech, Trump repeated false claims that the election was fraudulent and exhorted supporters to march on the Capitol.
With thousands of rifle-carrying National Guard troops inside and outside the Capitol, an emotional debate unfolded in the same House chamber where lawmakers had crouched under chairs and donned gas masks on Jan. 6 as rioters clashed with police officers outside the doors.
No U.S. president has ever been removed from office through impeachment. Three - Trump in 2019, Bill Clinton in 1998 and Andrew Johnson in 1868 - previously were impeached by the House but acquitted by the Senate.
The impeachment comes at a time of gaping political divisions in a pandemic-ravaged United States near the end of a tumultuous presidency in which Trump governed with a right-wing populist message preaching "America First."U