Democrats introduce resolution to impeach Trump

House Democrats formally introduced their resolution to impeach President Donald Trump yesterday, charging him with "incitement of insurrection" for his role in last week's riots at the US Capitol.

The impeachment resolution that the House is poised to vote on later this week is the Democrats' first step toward making Trump the first president in history to be impeached twice.

The single impeachment article, which was introduced when the House gaveled into a brief pro-forma session yesterday, points to Trump's repeated false claims that he won the election and his speech to the crowd on January 6 before pro-Trump rioters breached the Capitol.

It also cited Trump's call with the Georgia Republican secretary of state where the President urged him to "find" enough votes for Trump to win the state.

"In all this, President Trump gravely endangered the security of the United States and its institutions of Government," the resolution said.

"He threatened the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful transition of power, and imperiled a coequal branch of Government. He thereby betrayed his trust as President, to the manifest injury of the people of the United States."

The resolution also cited the Constitution's 14th Amendment, noting that it "prohibits any person who has 'engaged in insurrection or rebellion against' the United States" from holding office.

"As our next step, we will move forward with bringing impeachment legislation to the Floor. The president's threat to America is urgent, and so too will be our action," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement yesterday.

Pelosi told House Democrats on Sunday evening that the House would proceed with bringing an impeachment resolution to the floor this week unless Vice President Mike Pence moves to invoke the 25th Amendment with a majority of the Cabinet to remove Trump from power.

Pelosi's letter was the first time she explicitly said that the House would take up impeachment on the floor this week, though it was clear that House Democrats have rapidly coalesced around an impeachment resolution in the days following the riots at the Capitol where five people died, including a US Capitol Police officer.

Democrats yesterday sought to take up a resolution from Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland urging Pence and the Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer asked for unanimous consent to bring up the resolution, but West Virginia GOP Rep. Alex Mooney objected to the request.

Pelosi has said the Democrats will move to bring the resolution for a floor vote today.

Democrats are calling on Pence to respond within 24 hours, she said. If that does not happen, Democrats will bring their impeachment resolution to the floor.

Timing of an impeachment vote is still fluid, though the expectation is it would happen on Wednesday or Thursday.

The impeachment resolution was introduced by Democratic Reps. David Cicilline of Rhode Island, Raskin and Ted Lieu of California.

Cicilline tweeted Sunday evening that the resolution now has more than 200 co-sponsors, nearly all of the Democratic caucus. The resolution would likely go to the House Rules Committee before it's brought to the floor.

The level of unity in the Democratic caucus is being driven by the visceral reaction to what happened on January 6, when lawmakers had to be evacuated from the House and Senate chambers with rioters banging on the doors outside as the insurrectionists tried to stop the counting of votes to affirm President-elect Joe Biden would become President on January 20.

Pelosi said in an interview on CBS' "60 Minutes" that she liked the idea of invoking the 25th Amendment "because it gets rid of him," but explained, "one of the motivations people have for advocating for impeachment" is to prevent Trump from holding office again.

"There's strong support in the Congress for impeaching the President a second time," she said.

House Democrats were holding a caucus-wide call yesterday to discuss their path forward.

House Republicans have urged Democrats not to move forward with impeachment, arguing that such a move would be divisive in the face of Biden's calls for unity. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy was also holding a conference call with the GOP conference yesterday, according to a source familiar.

Still, there's been little to slow momentum toward impeachment since Wednesday.