For the first time in U.S. history, a sitting U.S. president has been impeached—twice.
On Wednesday, the House of Representatives voted 232-197 to impeach President Donald J. Trump, a week after a group of supporters who was inspired by his rhetoric, violently stormed the U.S. Capitol in an effort to halt the certification of Electoral College votes that ultimately declared Joseph R. Biden as the next president of the United States.
Ten Republicans joined the 232 Democrats in voting for impeachment.
Now, the article of impeachment will move to the U.S. Senate for a trial where it is unlikely to end in a conviction, said Dr. Ravi K. Perry, professor and chair of the political science department at Howard University.
“Just imagine if Al Qaeda or the Taliban took control of our U.S. Capitol building for that amount of time and imagine only 10 members from the other party that controls Congress saying, ‘We think that this is something that is abhorrent.’ That is essentially what happened here and that’s unfortunate,” said Perry.
Watching the proceedings from the West Coast, Dr. Gary Orfield, a distinguished research professor of education, law, political science and urban planning at the University of California, Los Angeles said that he was surprised by the number of House Republicans who abandoned party allegiances and voted for the measure.
“[Trump’s] party is no longer committed to defending every fit of outrage, and I think that’s healthy,” said Orfield. “It’s now up to the Republicans in the Senate to decide whether they want to cleanse their party of this kind of very dangerous politics with people who are not committed to democracy and who are committed to hatred.”
