House impeaches Trump a second time a week after Capitol riots

President Trump was impeached a second time by the US House of Representatives on Wednesday in a largely party-line vote that saw a handful of Republicans join Democrats to blame the outgoing commander-in-chief for sparking last week’s Capitol siege.

The measure reached 217 “yea” votes shortly after 4:20 p.m. to make Trump the only president to be impeached twice.

The final vote was 232-197, with 10 Republicans crossing party lines and four Republicans not voting, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) announced around 4:35 p.m.

No members of the GOP voted in 2019 to im༒peach Trump the first time.

The move set the stage for a Senate trial that a spokesman for Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said won’t begin before the Jan. 20 inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden.

The single article of impeachment against Trump accuses him of “inciting violence against the government of the𝔍 United States” ahead of last week’s storming of the Capitol by supporters he addressed duriಞng a rally near the White House.

The Jan. 6 riot led to five deaths, including that of a Capitol Police officer who was hit in 🍷the head with a fire exti💝nguisher.

Passions ran high during Wednesday’s proceedings, starting with a bitter✱ back-and-forth between Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) — a fierce Trump supporter — and Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) over last week’s Republican effort to challenge the Electoral College results in a failed bid to establish a commissioꦦn to investigate alleged vote fraud.

During a late-morning procedural dispute, Jordan accused Democrats of a “double standard” for having objected to certifying the results of Trump’s 2016 victory over Hilꦕlary Clinton, and pointedly alluded to McGovern’s role.

“Guess who the first objector was on Jan. 6, 2017? The fꦰirst objector was the Democratic chairman of the Rules Committee,” Jordan said.

McGovern fired back, saying, “Hillary𓃲 Clinton conceded the day after the election and none of us pushed conspiracy theories like some of my friends on the other side of the aisle — as has the president — that somehow the president won in a lan🍷dslide.”

“Give me a break,” he added.

Later, during nearly 3 ¹/₂ hours of debate on the actual impeachment🧜 resolution, Jordan invoked the first flight by the Wright brothers in 1903, US Air Force Capt. Chuck Yeager breaking the sound bar🌌rier in 1947 and astronaut Neil Armstrong stepping onto the moon in 1969.

“In one lifetime, in 66 years, two guys flying a hundred feet, to putting a man on the moon. That’s what this cou🌺ntry is🔥 capable of. That’s what we can do,” Jordan said.

“So I hope, I hope we defeat this, I hope we can begin to come 🐷together and re🧸cognize the greatness of the American people and focus on the things they want us to focus on.”

Democrats, however, repeatedly a🌱rgued that Trump was a “clear and present danger,” with Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) saying, “This threat must be extinguished immediately.”

“The president must 𒉰be impeached and convicted, and he must be prevented from ever attempting to seize power ag💙ain,” Clyburn said.

The Republicans who voted against Trump were Liz Cheney of Wyoming, Tom Rice of South Carolina, John Katko of New York, Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio, Peter Meijer of Michigan, Adam Kinzinger of Illinoiꦬs, Dan Newhouse of Washington, Fred Upton of Michigan, Jaime Herreraꦺ Beutler of Washington, and David Valadao of California.

Republicans Andy Harris of Maryland, Daniel Webster of Florida, Greg Murphy of North Carolina and Kay Granger of Texas didn’t cast votes.

The House was missing two of its 435 members due to the Dec. 29 death of Rep.-elect Luke Letlow, who suffered a heart attack following a medical procedure related to COVID🉐-19, and a still-undecided New York race between Rep. Anthony Brindisi (D-Utica) and Republican challenger Claudia Tenney.

Ea꧂rlier Wednesday, Cheney — the third-h💖ighest ranking GOP member of the House and a daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney — came under fire from her party’s Freedom Caucus in response to her Tuesday statement supporting the impeachment effort.

A petition being circulated among the 44-person conservative bloc calls on her to resign as chair of the House Republican Conference, saying her “personal position on issues does not reflect that of the majority of the Republican Conference and has brought the Confer👍ence into disrepute and produced discord.”

Several House Democrats quoted from Cheney’s statement during Wednesday’s proceeding, including her assertion, “There has never been a greater betrayal b🍸y a president of the United States of his office and♒ his oath to the Constitution.”

Trump was impeached by the House in December 2019 on charges of abus🌞e of power and obstruction of Congress over allegations he tried to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to announce investigations that would boost his campaign against President-elect Joe Biden.

But the Republican-controlled Senate acquitted Trump in February, with US Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) casting the lone GOP vote against him, on just the abuse☂ of power cꦍount.

Only two other US presidents have also been impeached — Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998 — but neither was convicted.