Democrats in the United States House of Representatives on Monday afternoon formally introduced an article of impeachment against President Donald Trump for incitement to insurrection and called on Vice President Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove him.
According to reports by Aljazeera, the article of impeachment cites Trump’s “repeatedly false statements” that he lost the 2020 election “because of widespread fraud.”
The Democrat-controlled House is therefore poised to pass the article of impeachment in a vote as soon as Wednesday if Trump does not resign first, according to the report.
Also, the House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, has said that the House will go ahead with the impeachment proceedings as she urged Vice President Mike Pence to invoke constitutional authority to remove Trump from office following last week’s deadly assault on the Capitol, the seat of the country’s legislature.
She added that if the 25th Amendment is not invoked, Democrats in the House will move ahead with impeachment process.
However, if the impeachment sails through, Trump will be the first ever US president to have been impeached twice in four years of his presidency and he may face a ban from seeking future office.
The House, which is controlled by Democrats, can vote to impeach the president with a simple majority as early as Wednesday. A trial will then be held in the Senate, and is expected to take place after Trump leaves office, although the constitutionality of such a proceeding is likely to be challenged.
In the Senate trial, a two-thirds vote would be needed in the 100-member chamber to convict Trump, a subsequent vote, likely to require only a simple majority, could then bar Trump from holding future federal office.
But in a swift reaction to the move by the Democrats, the House Republicans blocked the request to bring up a resolution urging Vice President Mike Pence to start the US Constitution’s 25th Amendment process of removing Trump from office.
House Democrats sought agreement to immediately bring up the resolution for debate, but Republicans stopped it on a voice vote. Democrats have indicated they will seek a recorded vote on the same resolution onTuesday.
