President-elect Joe Biden reacted to Wednesday’s historic second impeachment of President Donald Trump, indicating he hopes the Senate will do its Constitutional duty as well as focusing on other, “urgent business.”
“Today, in a bipartisan vote, the House voted to impeach and hold President Trump accountable,” Biden tweeted. “Now, the process continues to the Senate—and I hope they’ll deal with their Constitutional responsibilities on impeachment while also working on the other urgent business of this nation.”
Biden has mostly stayed silent on whether he supported impeachment. He is poised to take office in less than a week in the midst of an uptick in coronavirus cases, a slow rollout of the vaccine and an economy struggling to recover amid the pandemic.
On Wednesday, the Democrat-led House of Representatives approved a single article of impeachment, which can be read here, accusing the president of inciting the violence that led to the Jan. 6 death of one Capitol Hill police officer and a protester. Three other people died in what authorities said were medical emergencies during a violent riot that saw Trump-supporting protesters storm the Capitol and cause Congress to evacuate.
But Trump is set to leave office on Jan. 20 with Biden’s inauguration. The Senate is not scheduled to be back in session until Jan. 19, and while current Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is reportedly furious with the president, it’s unclear how a Senate impeachment trial would play out. The New York Times reported McConnell thinks Trump committed an impeachable offense and is glad Democrats are moving against him.
Citing unidentified people familiar with McConnell’s thinking, the Times reported McConnell believes moving against Trump will help the GOP forge a future independent of the divisive, chaotic president.
Biden spoke to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi late last week, telling her he would “focus on doing his job and leave it to her to handle impeachment,” a senior Biden adviser speaking on condition of anonymity told The Washington Post.
Trump was impeached by the House in late 2019 and acquitted by the Senate in February 2020 on two impeachment charges: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The GOP-led Senate acquitted Trump on both charges.
With the Senate in a 50-50 split between Republicans and Democrats, Vice President-elect Harris will serve as the Senate’s tiebreaker, meaning Trump’s trial will take place in a Senate far different than the one he faced in 2020.
Even now, however, it’s unclear enough Republicans would vote to convict, because two-thirds of the Senate is needed. Yet some Republicans have told Trump to resign, including Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey and Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski. Republican Sen. Ben Sasse has said he would take a look at what the House approves but stopped short of committing to support it.
Other Republicans have said that impeachment would be divisive. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, long a key ally of the president, has been critical of his behavior in inciting the riots but said impeachment “will do far more harm than good.”
On Wednesday afternoon, new Georgia GOP Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene not only voted against Trump’s second impeachment, but a few hours later, announced on Twitter on Jan. 21 she will introduce articles of impeachment to remove Biden from office for “abuse of power.”
“I would like to announce on behalf of the American people we have to make sure that our leaders are held accountable,” Greene said during an appearance on Newsmax. “We cannot have a president of the United States that is willing to abuse the power of the office of the presidency and be easily bought off by foreign governments.”
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