The U.S. House of Representatives has impeached President Donald Trump for “incitement of insurrection” at last week’s Capitol riot.
He is the first president in U.S. history to be twice impeached – to be charged with crimes by Congress.
Trump, a Republican, will now face a trial in the Senate, where if convicted he could face being barred from ever holding office again.
The impeachment measure passed largely along party lines.
Trump is due to leave office on January 20, following his election defeat last November to Democrat Joe Biden.
After several hours of impassioned debate on Wednesday, the Democratic-controlled House voted.
Six Republicans said beforehand they would side with Democrats to impeach the president. But the majority of conservatives remained loyal to Trump.
But it is unlikely Trump will have to leave the White House before his term in office ends in one week as the Senate was not expected to convene in time.
Last week, 139 Republicans voted against accepting the result of the 2020 election and Trump’s defeat.
What was Trump charged with?
Impeachment charges are political, not criminal. The president was accused by Congress of inciting the storming of the Capitol with his January 6 speech to a rally outside the White House.
Following Mr Trump’s remarks, his supporters broke into the Capitol, forcing lawmakers to suspend certification of election results and take shelter. The building was placed on lockdown and five people died.
The article of impeachment stated that Mr Trump “repeatedly issued false statements asserting that the presidential election results were fraudulent and should not be accepted”.
It says he then repeated these claims and “willfully made statements to the crowd that encouraged and foreseeably resulted in lawless action at the Capitol”, leading to the violence and loss of life.
“President Trump gravely endangered the security of the United States and its institutions of government, threatened the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful transition of power, and imperiled a coequal branch of government.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, said on the House floor: “The president of the United States incited this insurrection, this armed rebellion against our common country.
“He must go. He is a clear and present danger to the nation that we all love.”
Most Republicans did not seek to defend Mr Trump’s rhetoric, instead arguing that the impeachment had bypassed the customary hearings and calling on Democrats to drop it for the sake of national unity.
“Impeaching the president in such a short time frame would be a mistake,” said Kevin McCarthy, the House’s top Republican.
“That doesn’t mean the president’s free from fault. The president bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by mob rioters.”
The impeachment article will head to the Senate, which will hold a trial to determine the president’s guilt.
A two-thirds majority is needed to convict Mr Trump, meaning at least 17 Republicans would have to vote with Democrats in the evenly split, 100-seat upper chamber.
As many as 20 Senate Republicans are open to convicting the president, the New York Times reported on Tuesday.
If Mr Trump is convicted by the Senate, lawmakers could hold another vote to block him from running for elected office again – which he has indicated he planned to do in 2024.
But the trial will not come immediately. The Senate may not reconvene until January 19, according to a spokesman for Republican majority leader Mitch McConnell.
Mr McConnell also said on Wednesday that he has not made a final decision on how he will vote. “I intend to listen to the legal arguments when they are presented to the Senate.”
BBC
