President Donald Trump impeached for a second time. How did Californians shape the vote?
The House of Representatives Wednesday impeached President Donald Trump for an unprecedented second time, as Democrats and a handful of Republicans formally voted to charge the 45th president with “incitement of insurrection.”
“We know the president of the United States incited this insurrection, this armed rebellion against our common country,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, told the House as she opened the impeachment debate Wednesday. “He must go. He is a clear and present danger to the nation that we all love.”
She recalled “that day of fire we all experienced,” and argued, “The president must be impeached and I believe the president must be convicted by the Senate.”
The 232 to 197 vote comes one week after a mob invaded the Capitol, breached the House and Senate chambers and occupied Pelosi’s office. Five people died, and dozens have been arrested. Ten Republicans, including California Rep. David Valadao, R-Hanford, joined Democrats in voting to impeach.
The House impeached Trump because, the article of impeachment says, he “has demonstrated that he will remain a threat to national security, democracy, and the Constitution if allowed to remain in office, and has acted in a manner grossly incompatible with self-governance and the rule of law.”
Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Torrance. was one of the impeachment article’s three principal authors. He said in a joint statement with the other sponsors that it was crucial to proceed because “The United States Capitol – the citadel of our democracy – was attacked as President Trump’s supporters attempted to stage a coup and overturn the results of our free and fair presidential election.”
Wednesday’s impeachment was the second for Trump. In December, 2019, the House voted to impeach him for abuse of power and obstruction of justice in connection with his effort to persuade Ukraine to interfere in the presidential election. Trump joined Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton as the only presidents ever to be impeached.
None have been convicted; that requires a two-thirds vote of the Senate. It was unclear Wednesday if or when the Senate would hold a trial.
Trump leaves office in a week, and there has been talk that holding a trial after he leaves office would have the effect of barring him from ever holding federal office and denying him federal benefits.
The president tried to calm tensions Wednesday. “I urge that there must be NO violence, NO lawbreaking and NO vandalism of any kind. That is not what I stand for, and it is not what America stands for,” he said in a statement.
Fifty of the Senate’s 100 members are Republicans. Whether 17 senators would agree to convict is uncertain, though Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who had been a loyal Trump ally, has indicated he is pleased with impeachment. He has made no decision on a trial.
Pelosi has named nine members of Congress as impeachment managers to present the case at a trial. Among them are Lieu and Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Castro Valley.
Also unprecedented Wednesday, at least in modern times, was the tense, somber setting for the debate and vote. National Guard troops in camouflage were all over the Capitol and its grounds.
Among the members of Congress, the anger, and the fear, were everywhere.
“By inciting this insurrection, the president betrayed his oath of office by committing the irredeemable act of provoking violence against the very people he swore to protect – the American people,” said Rep. Ami Bera, D-Sacramento.
Divided Republicans
Republicans joining Democrats included Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyoming, the third-ranking member of the House GOP.
“There has never been a greater betrayal by a president of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution,” she said in a statement Tuesday.
Many Republicans, while agreeing Trump needed to be criticized or censured, saw impeachment as too harsh, and the process for reaching Wednesday’s vote too hurried.
Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, has somewhat retreated from his place in Trump’s corner since the violent mob engulfed the Capitol last week. He did not seem to wrangle his Republican members to vote against impeachment — as he did in 2019 — but he still voted against impeachment.
McCarthy’s vote came after multiple reported tense phone calls between Trump and McCarthy, two longtime allies. McCarthy reportedly yelled at Trump on the phone during the Capitol riot, trying to convince Trump to make a statement to call off his supporters. When McCarthy’s entreaties didn’t work, reportedly because Trump was entranced by the live coverage on TV, McCarthy took to calling into networks to literally plead for help.
In another reported phone call between the two after, McCarthy repeatedly rebuked Trump when he tried to blame the riot on Antifa, which Trump supporters say is a group of left-wing agitators, and talk about his false claims of the election being stolen from him.
Staunch Trump allies remained defiant. Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Tulare, signaled before the vote that he was not retreating from Trump and was vehemently against impeachment.
“The president makes a lot of mistakes. All presidents make mistakes,” he said on Fox News Tuesday night. “But the bottom line is, to do a snap impeachment has real consequences.”
Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Elk Grove, agreed that Trump had committed no impeachable offenses. He said Trump’s words to the crowd before they attacked the Capitol were part of his “freedom of speech.”
“If we impeached every politician that gave a fiery speech to a crowd of partisans, this would be an empty building,” McClintock said in a speech on the House floor. He said the proper remedy was to hold the rioters accountable for their actions.
Angry Democrats
The outcome of the impeachment vote has been clear for days. Pelosi is usually measured in how she proceeds; she resisted impeachment in 2019 for some time.
Not this time. The day of the invasion, a photo of a rioter sitting, feet up at her desk, became iconic. And the idea that this safe, historic Capitol had been so brutally violated weighed on her, and her long-fractured relationship with Trump helped unleash both a torrent of anger and a lingering sadness.
“It breaks my heart. It should break your heart. It breaks all of our hearts,” Pelosi said.
Her colleagues were just as troubled, and saw impeachment as the only response.
“We don’t need a long investigation to know the president incited right wing terrorists to attack the Congress, to try to overturn constitutional government,” said House Administration Committee Chair Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose.
“Without a proper check and proportional response to these events, we will be doomed to re-live the same hell over and over again,” said Rep. John Garamendi, D-Walnut Grove.
This story was originally published January 13, 2021 at 1:29 PM with the headline "President Donald Trump impeached for a second time. How did Californians shape the vote?."
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