More than a dozen Democratic lawmakers say they will try to impeach Trump again following riots over his election conspiracy theories
By Jacob Shamsian
More than a dozen Democratic Congressional representatives say they will try to impeach President Donald Trump again after his supporters stormed the halls of Congress to defy the certification of President-elect Joe Biden's election victory.
Rep Ilhan Omar tweeted Wednesday afternoon that she was drawing up articles of impeachment to remove Trump from office.
"I am drawing up Articles of Impeachment. Donald J. Trump should be impeached by the House of Representatives & removed from office by the United States Senate. We can't allow him to remain in office, it's a matter of preserving our Republic and we need to fulfill our oath," she said on Twitter.
She was joined by Rep. Ayanna Pressley, who tweeted that Trump "should immediately be impeached by the House of Representatives & removed from office by the United States Senate as soon as Congress reconvenes."
Reps. Kai Kahele, David Cicilline, Seth Moulton, Mark Takano, Mondaire Jones, Bonnie Coleman, Earl Blumenauer, Steve Cohen, Pramila Jayapal, and Jennifer Wexton also said they would join the impeachment effort.
Other Democratic representatives — including Ted Lieu and Mark Pocan — called for the invocation of the 25th Amendment, which allows members of the presidential administration to remove the president from office and replace them with the vice president. Lieu described Trump as "detached from reality."
The pro-Trump rioters breached the walls of Congress earlier Wednesday afternoon, seeking to stop the counting of electoral college votes overseen by Vice President Mike Pence, a largely ceremonial event.
Trump lost the 2020 presidential election to Biden more than two months ago, though he has continued to deny the reality of his loss. Instead, he has conjured false conspiracy theories about a rigged election and has told his supporters to "fight."
Trump spoke to a rally of his supporters moments before they marched on the Capitol and broke into it, interrupting the vote-counting proceedings. Hours afterwards, he released a video on social media continuing to propagate conspiracy theories about the election and calling his supporters "very special" while telling them to leave the capitol.
Biden is set to be inaugurated as president on January 20.
Trump became the third president in US history to be impeached in December 2019, but the Senate did not reach the 67 votes needed to convict him and remove him from office. The articles of impeachment said he abused his power by asking the president of Ukraine to dig up "dirt" on then-candidate Biden and later obstructed Congress's investigation into the matter.
Also on Wednesday, several officials have acted to expel members of Congress who tried to overturn election results. Democratic Rep. Cori Bush introduced a resolution for their expulsion, saying they "incited this domestic terror."
