US: Donald Trump Becomes First US President To Be Impeached Twice, Know What Happens Next

After the impeachment it is up to Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to submit the article of impeachment to the Senate who will proceed with the trial.

(FILE Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP)

US President Impeachment: In a historic 232-197 voting supported by Democrats and 10 Republicans, the US President becomes the first President to be impeached twice, a little more than a year since his first. Liz Cheney, the third-ranking GOP leader in the House also supported the move. Lawmakers had initiated the proceedings to punish the President on charge of incitement of violence for his role in a riot by his supporters that left five dead. The incident has left a blot in his presidency  just before a week left in his term. Ten Republican Congressmen voted in favour of an article of impeachment on Wednesday that charged Trump with a count of "incitement of insurrection" for his actions on January 6, when he delivered a speech inciting his supporters to storm the US Capitol, an action that temporarily halted the counting of Electoral College votes and resulted in the deaths of five individuals, including an officer of the US Capitol Police. Four Congressmen did not vote. All four Indian-American House members Ami Bera, Ro Khanna, Raja Krishnamoorthi and Pramila Jayapal voted in favour of the impeachment. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called Trump “a clear and present danger to this country that we all love." What happens next? Now, it depends upon the speaker when she wants to send the impeachment article to the Senate for a trial. It may not happen smoothly as it seems because Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell has rejected Democratic leader Chuck Schumer’s plea to agree to bring senators back for an emergency session and start the trial before January 20. It is when Trump leaves office and President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated. In the next step, the Senate will hold a trial, and the same events took place last year after Trump was impeached in 2019 by the Democratic-controlled House because of pressuring the leader of Ukraine. In case the the Senate moved "promptly," there is little scope of the Senate to conduct a trial before Biden is inaugurated and Trump leaves office, McConnell said in a statement. "Given the rules, procedures, and Senate precedents that govern presidential impeachment trials, there is simply no chance that a fair or serious trial could conclude before President-elect Biden is sworn in next week," he said, as per news agency AFP. McConnell noted that the three previous presidential impeachment trials had lasted 83 days, 37 days, and 21 days. Schumer, in a statement welcoming Trump's impeachment by the House, said that regardless of when it starts "make no mistake, there will be an impeachment trial in the United States Senate." "Donald Trump has deservedly become the first president in American history to bear the stain of impeachment twice over," Schumer said. "The Senate is required to act and will proceed with his trial and hold a vote on his conviction."