Donald Trump – The First President To Be Impeached Twice

The US House of Representatives has impeached President Donald Trump for “incitement of insurrection” at last week’s Capitol riot.

Ten Republicans sided with Democrats to impeach the president by 232-197.

But his trial in the Senate will not happen until after Joe Biden, a Democrat, is inaugurated as the new US president next week.

Mr. Trump, a Republican, is the first president in US history to be impeached twice.

Democratic-controlled House voted after two hours of impassioned debate as armed National Guard troops kept watch inside and outside the Capitol.

The FBI has warned of possible armed protests planned for Washington DC and all 50 US state capitals ahead of Mr. Biden’s inauguration on January 20th. They have taken drastic security measures as a precaution and have increased the number of National Guard troops from 8000 for Trump’s speech that created chaos on January 6th and resulted in 5 deaths to at least 20000 for Biden’s Inauguration.

Impeachment charges are political, not criminal. The president was accused by Congress of inciting the storming of the Capitol with a speech on 6 January to a rally outside the White House.

He urged his supporters to “peacefully and patriotically” make their voices heard, but also to “fight like hell” against an election that he falsely told them had been stolen.

The article of impeachment stated that Mr. Trump “repeatedly issued false statements asserting that the presidential election results were fraudulent and should not be accepted”.

It says he then repeated these claims and “wilfully made statements to the crowd that encouraged and foreseeably resulted in lawless action at the Capitol”, leading to the violence and loss of life.

“President Trump gravely endangered the security of the United States and its institutions of government, threatened the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful transition of power, and imperiled a coequal branch of government.”