The final vote was 232 in favor of impeachment and 197 against. Ten Republican lawmakers broke ranks and sided with their Democratic colleagues, making Wednesday’s vote the most bipartisan impeachment vote in US history. Trump is now the first president to be impeached twice; he was previously impeached on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress over the Ukraine scandal.
The process will now move to the Senate, which will hold a trial to determine whether to convict and remove Trump. In the unlikely event that Trump is convicted — which requires a two-thirds majority — the Senate will hold a subsequent vote on whether to bar him from ever holding public office again.
The events that led up to the Capitol riot were set in motion months before January 6, as the president fed his loyalists a steady diet of lies and disinformation about the election. He falsely insisted the only way he would lose the election was if it were fraudulent, that the race was “stolen” from him, and he was the legitimate winner despite losing the popular vote and Electoral College vote.
After a string of defeats in courts across the country and the Electoral College’s certification on December 14 of President-elect Joe Biden’s win, Trump turned his attention to the legislative branch in a last-ditch effort to hang on to power.
He made the false claim that Vice President Mike Pence and Congress, who count the electoral votes and formalize the president-elect’s victory, had the legal authority to “decertify” some states’ electors and throw the White House back to Trump.