Jan 14, 2021
The U.S. House of Representatives made Donald J. Trump the first U.S. president ever to be impeached twice on Wednesday. There’s little chance that Trump, as a result, will be removed from office one second earlier than his allotted time. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced he will not call the Senate back for an emergency session to hold the impeachment trial, so the Senate won’t hear the impeachment and vote on it until after the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden next week.
So why impeach the president at all? Is it simply, as his most loyal enablers like Rep. Jim Hagedorn suggest, the latest in a long history of persecution, lies and harassment that his enemies started before he was even elected? Or is it because, as House leadership insists, Trump’s actions since the election and leading up to last week’s insurrection at the Capitol have finally tipped the scale of outrage and justice must be done?
Richard Reich
BERKELEY Call me old-fashioned, but when the president of the United States encourages armed insurgents to breach the Capitol and threaten the physical safety of Congress in order to remain in power, I call it an attempted coup.
Last week’s rampage left five dead, including a Capitol police officer who tangled with the pro-Trump mob. We’re fortunate the carnage wasn’t greater.
That the attempted coup failed shouldn’t blind us to its significance or the stain it has left on America. Nor to the importance of holding those responsible fully accountable.
Trump’s culpability is beyond dispute.
| UPDATED: 07:18, Fri, Jan 15, 2021
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In a presidency that consisted of considerable turmoil, ending in an attempted insurrection on the Capitol in Washington DC, lawmakers in America have finally had enough. Members of the Republican Party finally turned on the erratic president after last week’s events, with Mr Trump now making history as the only US president ever to be impeached twice.