House of Representatives charge Trump with inciting an insurrection in new impeachment papers

NME | Music, Film, TV, Gaming & Pop Culture News

The House of Representatives has charged Donald Trump with inciting an insurrection in new impeachment papers.

• Read more: The best anti-Donald Trump protest songs from the past four years

Democrats are readying a second bid to impeach the outgoing President after the US Capitol building was stormed by Trump supporters last week (January 6). Trump himself refused to condemn those involved and told them in a since-deleted video message: “I love you”.

Now, a group of House Democrats have formally introduced an article impeachment against the President, charging him with “incitement to insurrection”.

The papers drawn up today (January 11) are titled “Resolution: Impeaching Donald John Trump, President of the United States, for high crimes and misdemeanours”. Their contents detail the Joint Session of Congress to count the votes from the Electoral College for the 2020 election, which was taking place as Trump’s supporters stormed the building.

“Shortly before the Joint Session commenced, President Trump addressed a crowd at the Ellipse in Washington D.C.,” they read. “There, he reiterated false claims that ‘we won this election and we won it by a landslide’. He also wilfully made statements that, in context, encouraged – and foreseeably resulted in – lawless action at the Capitol, such as: ‘if you don’t fight like hell you’re not going to have a country anymore’.

The Article of Impeachment: Incitement to Insurrection, drafted by Rep @davidcicilline, @RepRaskin, me & @HouseJudiciary staff, has now been formally introduced at the House pro forma session today. https://t.co/Y6ntbSXF9G pic.twitter.com/MfB4CpqC6C

— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) January 11, 2021

“Thus incited by President Trump, members of the crowd he had addressed, in an attempt to, among other objectives, interfere with the Joint Session’s solemn constitutional duty to certify the results of the 2020 Presidential election, unlawfully breached and vandalised the Capitol, injured and killed law enforcement personnel, menaced Members of Congress, the Vice President and Congressional personnel, and engaged in other violent, deadly, destructive and seditious acts.”

It concluded that Trump “gravely endangered the security of the United State and its institutions of Government”. It added that he would remain a threat to both national security and democracy if he was allowed to remain in power.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has reportedly given Vice President Mike Pence a deadline of tomorrow (January 12) to invoke the 25th amendment, before Democrats will formally launch the impeachment process.

Invoking the 25th amendment would see Trump deemed unfit to lead and Pence take control from him until Joe Biden is inaugurated on January 20. If impeachment happens instead, the proceedings might not be completed before Trump leaves office, but would bar him from being able to run for President – or any other office – again.

Demi Lovato has joined those, including a group of music industry figures, calling for Trump to be removed from power.

Posting on her Instagram account over the weekend, she captioned a video of The View co-host Meghan McCain calling for action against Trump, saying: “We must all come together condemning the mob that stormed the Capitol this week.”

The post House of Representatives charge Trump with inciting an insurrection in new impeachment papers appeared first on NME | Music, Film, TV, Gaming & Pop Culture News.