WASHINGTON (AP) – The process of impeaching President Donald Trump could begin on Inauguration Day, just as Democrat Joe Biden is taking the oath of office in an increasingly extraordinary end to the defeated president’s tenure in the White House.
The timing has not been set and depends a lot on when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi decides to send the impeachment article to the Senate. Democrats hoping not to interrupt Biden’s inauguration have suggested holding back until the new president has a chance to get his administration going.
What is clear is that the upcoming trial will be unlike any other in the country’s history, the first for a president no longer in office. And politically, it will enforce a checkout among some Republicans who backed Trump during his presidency and largely allowed him to spread false attacks against the integrity of the 2020 election.
Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell is open to impeachment after telling his associates he is done with Trump, but has not stated how he would vote.
The Republican leader has great influence in his party, although calling the trial will be one of his last acts as a majority leader. Two new senators from Georgia, both Democrats, will be sworn in and split 50-50 from the chamber. That will tip the majority to the Democrats as soon as Kamala Harris takes office as the vice president is a tie-breaker.
In a letter to his colleagues on Wednesday, McConnell said he had “not yet made a final decision on how I will vote” in a Senate impeachment lawsuit.
Trump was impeached by the House on Wednesday for the deadly siege of the Capitol, the only president in US history, twice impeached after a pro-Trump mob stormed the building. The attack has left the country’s capital, and other capital quotes, under high security amid threats of increased violence surrounding the inauguration.
Pelosi has not said when she will take the next step to pass on the accusation article, the only charge of inciting insurrection.
Under Senate procedure, the trial will begin shortly after the House delivers the impeachment article. That could mean that the trial will start at 1:00 pm on the Inauguration Day. The ceremony at the Capitol begins at noon.
After Trump’s initial impeachment, in 2019, she held back the articles for some time to pave the way for Senate action.
Biden has said the Senate should be able to divide its time and do both – stick to the process and work on its priorities.
With the Capitol inside and outside secured by armed forces of the National Guardthe House voted 232-197 Wednesday to impeach Trump. The proceedings were lightning-fast, with lawmakers voting just a week after violent pro-Trump loyalists stormed the Capitol, spurred on by the president’s calls to “ fight like hell. ” against the election results.
Ten Republicans have fled Trump, join Democrats who said he should be held accountable and ominously warned of a “clear and present danger” if Congress failed to keep him under control before Democrat Joe Biden’s inauguration on January 20. than against Bill Clinton in 1998.
The Capitol uprising baffled and angered lawmakers, who sought safety as the crowds descended, and it revealed the fragility of the nation’s history of peaceful transfers of power.
Pelosi appealed to Abraham Lincoln and the Bible and implored lawmakers to uphold their oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
She said of Trump, “He has to go, he is a clear and present danger to the nation we all love.”
Tucked away in the White House, watching the goings on on TVTrump later released a video statement in which he made no mention of the accusation at all, but appealed to his supporters to refrain from further violence or disruption to Biden’s inauguration.
“Like all of you, I was shocked and deeply saddened by the calamity at the Capitol last week,” he said, his first condemnation of the attack. He called for unity “to move forward” and said, “Mob violence goes against everything I believe in and everything our movement stands for. … No true supporter of mine could ever despise law enforcement.”
Trump was first impeached by the House in 2019 for his dealings with Ukraine, but the Senate voted to be acquitted in 2020.
No president has been condemned by the Senate, but Republicans have said this could change in the rapidly changing political environment if office holders, donors, large corporations and others break away from the defeated president.
Trump’s conviction and removal would require two-thirds of the vote in the Senate.
Biden said in a statement after the vote that it was his hope that the Senate leadership “will find a way to deal with their constitutional impeachment responsibilities, while also working on this country’s other urgent matters. . ”
Unlike his first time, Trump faces this charge as a weakened leader, who has lost his own reelection and the Senate Republican majority.
To make a case for the “high crimes and crimes” demanded in the constitution, the four-page impeachment resolution relies on Trump’s own inflammatory rhetoric and the falsehoods he spread about Biden’s election victory, including at a meeting at the White House on the day of the January 6 attack on the Capitol.
The impeachment resolution also aims to prevent Trump from ever fleeing again.
A Capitol police officer died of the injuries sustained during the riot, and the police shot and killed a woman during the siege. Three other people died in medical emergencies. The riot delayed the electoral college’s vote, which was the final step in the completion of Biden’s victory.
Ten Republican lawmakers, including House GOP leader Liz Cheney of Wyoming third rank, voted to impeach Trump, splitting the Republican leadership and the party itself.
Cheney, whose father is the former Republican vice president, said of Trump’s actions to appeal to the crowd that “there has never been a greater betrayal by a president” of his office.
The president’s strong popularity with GOP lawmakers’ voters still had some leverage, and most House Republicans voted not to impeach.
Trump is said to be furious at McConnell and Cheney’s alleged infidelity.
Security was exceptionally tight at the Capitol, with high fences surrounding the complex. Metal detector displays were required by lawmakers entering the room of the House, where lawmakers huddled in a week earlier as police barricaded the door for rioters with weapons drawn.
The impeachment law is based on Trump’s own false statements about his election defeat against Biden. Judges across the country, including some nominated by Trump, have repeatedly dismissed cases disputing the election results, and former Attorney General William Barr, an ally of Trump, has said there was no sign of widespread fraud.
While some have questioned the impeachment of the president so close to the end of his term, there is precedent. In 1876, during the reign of Ulysses Grant, War Secretary William Belknap was deposed by the House on the day he resigned, and the Senate convened a trial months later. He was acquitted.
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Associated Press authors Kevin Freking, Andrew Taylor Alan Fram, Zeke Miller and Jonathan Lemire contributed to this report.