After insurrection attempt, House impeaches president—again

Posted January 2021

By Isabelle Donahue

Staff Editor

Despite the nation's capital being overrun with rioters during the Congressional electoral count on Jan. 6, Congress affirmed that President-elect Joe Biden, along with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, lawfully won the election and will be sworn into office on Jan. 20.

Trump faces an uncertain future after his presidency. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi went so far on Jan. 7 as to demand that Vice President Mike Pence invoke the 25th Amendment and remove Trump from power. If not, Pelosi warned, Congress would begin another impeachment hearing. Other individuals have been calling for Trump to face legal ramifications for his actions and statements from before and during his presidency, such as when he asked for the Georgia officials to “find votes'' for him. On Jan. 6, he went as far as to say that he would be leading the way towards the Capitol building, which he did not do. Vice President Pence, unlike Trump, has condemned the violence occurring at the Capitol building alongside many other Republican party members.

“History will rightly remember today’s violence at the Capitol, incited by a sitting president who has continued to baselessly lie about the outcome of a lawful election, as a moment of great dishonor and shame for our nation,” stated former President Barack Obama. “I’ve been heartened to see many members of the President’s party speak up forcefully today. Their voices add to the examples of Republican state and local election officials in states like Georgia who've refused to be intimidated and have discharged their duties honorably. We need more leaders like these—right now and in the days, weeks, and months ahead as President-Elect Biden works to restore a common purpose to our politics. It's up to all of us as Americans, regardless of party, to support him in that goal."

On Nov. 3, 2020, U.S. states began to record and report on the public’s presidential votes. Biden consistently held the lead in many news source predictions. After all the votes were counted, Biden, as the Democratic nominee, won with 306 electoral votes and 81,283,485, or 51.4% of the popular vote. Incumbent nominee Donald Trump had 232 electoral votes and 74,223,744, or 46.9% of votes. Libertarian nominee Jo Jorgensen did not receive any electoral votes, but had 1,865,873 or 1.2% of votes. Green nominee Howie Hawkins also received no electoral votes but earned 399,116, or 0.3% of votes. All other candidates who ran gained no electoral votes, 439, 862, or 0.3% of votes altogether.

“I am honored and humbled by the trust the American people have placed in me and in Vice President-elect Harris,” Biden said during his victory speech on Nov. 7. “In the face of unprecedented obstacles, a record number of Americans voted. Proving once again, that democracy beats deep in the heart of America. With the campaign over, it’s time to put the anger and the harsh rhetoric behind us and come together as a nation. It’s time for America to unite. And to heal. We are the United States of America. And there’s nothing we can’t do, if we do it together."

Trump, instead of following 124 years of tradition, decided not to give a concession speech after losing the election. After a couple of weeks of refusing to concede, he did make several Tweets indirectly acknowledging his loss. Soon after posting these Tweets, however, Trump deleted them and then Tweeted, “I concede NOTHING.”

Along with refusing to make any public statements about losing the election, Trump has made multiple allegations about voter fraud and interference. Many of these claims have been believed by some of the general public. The most wide-spread allegations were that large numbers of Republican ballots were destroyed, that voting machines in prominently Republican populated areas stopped working or started changing votes for Trump to votes for Biden, and that there was nationwide voting fraud. None of those claims are backed by factual evidence, though there have been some staged photos released on social media platforms. In regards to Republican ballots being destroyed, many states that faced these allegations released official statements informing the public that no one working with ballots did anything illegal, such as destroy, purposely misplace, or steal ballots. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security, has stated that there were no issues with any voting machines used during the election. After Trump’s allegations about voter fraud, both FBI agents and U.S. attorneys have investigated voter fraud and have found nothing that would influence the election results, though it has been released that most of the voting fraud cases have been linked to Republican voters.

Since becoming president-elect, Biden has made multiple statements about his plans as president. Biden’s top three plans are to beat COVID-19, create jobs and economic recovery help for working families, and to provide every American citizen affordable healthcare. He also has well-developed plans to fix climate change, racial injustice in the U.S., end the gun violence epidemic, and to support both teachers and students. Harris also backs Biden up on many of his plans, and intends to make changes towards gender equality, racial injustice, and making the school system that will lift up children of all backgrounds.

"And to the children of our country, regardless of your gender, our country has sent you a clear message: Dream with ambition, lead with conviction and see yourself in a way that others might not see you, simply because they've never seen it before,” said Harris during her victory speech. “ And we will applaud you every step of the way."

The House of Representatives voted to impeach Trump for the second time on Jan. 12. The final vote was 232 to 197, with 10 Republicans joining all 222 Democrats in supporting charging the president with "incitement of insurrection." Trump was impeached for urging the acts of domestic terrorism at the Capitol that caused the formalization of Biden’s win to be delayed multiple hours. The article of impeachment will now head to the Senate where there will be a trial held to see if Trump should be convicted and removed from office. Trump has continually refused to take responsibility for his role in inciting the mob that stormed the Capitol, insisting on Tuesday that his speech before the riot was "totally appropriate."