House barrels toward new Trump impeachment, will vote on resolution

With only eight days remaining in President Trump's term, the House of Representatives is barrelling toward a second impeachment vote in the coming days as outrage about the president's role in the storming of the Capitol by his supporters last week continues to reverberate throughout Washington, D.C.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, the House will take two major steps toward impeaching Trump, which would make him the only president to be impeached twice.

Tuesday evening, the House will vote after 7:30 p.m. on a resolution from Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., calling on Vice President Mike Pence to use the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office. That amendment sets up a process by which the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet may declare to Congress that the president "is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office."

The vote likely will not happen until very late Tuesday night.

If Pence does not oblige -- he is not expected to -- then Democrats have said they will move forward with a second impeachment of the president, starting with debate on Wednesday morning.

"The House will next take up the Raskin legislation in regular order to call upon the Vice President to activate the 25th Amendment to remove the President," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Monday after Republicans objected to the passage of the Rankin resolution via unanimous consent. "We are further calling on the Vice President to respond within 24 hours after passage."

She added: "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."

Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., said on Twitter Monday that Democrats now have the votes to impeach Trump for "Incitement of Insurrection."

The article claims that "President Trump endangered the security of the United States and its institutions of Government. He threatened the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful transition of power, and imperiled a coequal branch of government. He therefore betrayed his trust as president, to the manifest injury of the people of the United States."

Beyond most Democrats backing impeachment, as they did when the House impeached Trump in 2019, there appear to be several Republicans who may vote in favor of impeaching the president.