Trump Becomes First President to Be Impeached Twice

Late Wednesday afternoon (Jan. 13), it was revealed that President Donald Trump had been impeached a week before he was set to leave the office of President. This latest infraction relates the Trump's role in the riot that occurred at the U.S. Capitol building last week.

The House of Representatives charged Trump with high crimes and misdemeanors for inciting the insurrection. It ended up in a 232-197 vote, with all the Democratic representatives and 10 of the Republican representatives voting in favor of the impeachment.

The four-page article of impeachment argued that Trump continually fed his supporters false information about widespread fraud related to the 2020 election, claims that were repeatedly struck down in the courts, and then urged them to march on the Capitol on Jan. 6, the same day that Congress was planning to certify the vote that would make Joe Biden the 46th President of the United States. The ensuing riot that took place ended with five people dead.

In the aftermath, Democrats urged Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office but Pence declined, leading to the impeachment proceedings to continue.

With the House of Representatives now having voted to impeach Trump, the next move will be to send the article to the Senate who will have to start a trial and vote on whether to convict Trump. Mitch McConnel, the Leader of the Senate, did not commit one way or the other when asked if the Senate would take up impeachment. He did say the Senate would not take up the matter before the President leaves office.