Democrats have started their push to force US President Donald Trump from office, introducing one article of impeachment accusing him of inciting insurrection over a violent attack on the Capitol last week.
Key points:
- House Democrats have moved to impeach President Trump over his actions leading up to riots in Washington
- Mr Trump was impeached in December 2019 but the Republican-controlled Senate voted to not convict him
- If the impeachment passes the House, the Senate would still have to vote on it
The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives is expected to hold a vote on the matter as early as Wednesday.
Passage would make Mr Trump the only president in US history to be impeached twice.
If Mr Trump is convicted, he might be prevented from running again for the presidency or ever holding public office again.
“I can report that we now have the votes to impeach,” tweeted David Cicilline, a Democratic Congressman from Rhode Island said.
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The article of impeachment states that Mr Trump thus far faces a solitary charge — “incitement of insurrection”.
Removing Donald Trump
Democrats in the US Congress will try to remove Republican President Donald Trump from office this week following a riot at the US Capitol last week, which Mr Trump has been of inciting.Read more
“President Trump gravely endangered the security of the United States and its institutions of Government,” the article of impeachment reads.
“He threatened the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful transition of power, and imperilled a coordinate branch of Government.
arrested for their role in the violence, and officials have opened 25 domestic terrorism investigations.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, many of her fellow Democrats and a handful of Republicans say Mr Trump should not be trusted to serve out his term, which ends on January 20.
“In protecting our constitution and our Democracy, we will act with urgency, because this President represents an imminent threat to both,” Ms Pelosi wrote to her fellow House Democrats on Sunday.
Before the impeachment article was introduced, Republicans blocked an effort to immediately consider a resolution asking Vice-President Mike Pence to invoke the US constitution’s never-used 25th Amendment to remove an unfit president.
The House is expected to vote on Tuesday (local time) on the resolution calling for use of the 25th Amendment, which allows the vice-president and the Cabinet to remove a president who is incapable of fulfilling his duties.
Mr Pence and his fellow Republicans have shown little interest in invoking the amendment.
Mr Trump acknowledged that a new administration would take office on January 20 in a video statement after the attack, but he has not appeared in public.
Twitter and Facebook have suspended his accounts, citing the risk of him inciting violence.
House Democrats impeached Mr Trump in December 2019 for pressuring Ukraine to investigate Mr Biden, but the Republican-controlled Senate voted not to convict him