Democrats are preparing to impeach President Donald Trump as early as Tuesday as outrage grows over the president’s role in inciting last week’s riots at the US Capitol.
The Democratic-controlled House is certain to have the votes to impeach Mr Trump, making him the first president in history to be impeached twice. However, House leadership is considering delaying the second part of the process – sending the article of impeachment to the Senate for a trial – to allow incoming president Joe Biden time to implement his agenda and install cabinet members who need senate approval.
Should the US senate vote to convict Mr Trump on impeachment charges, senators can then hold a vote to bar him from holding office in the future. The prospect of preventing a political comeback for the 45th president could entice some Trump allies with presidential ambitions of their own, like Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley, to convict.
The possibility of delaying a Senate impeachment trial follows behind-the-scenes discussions between Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her party over the weekend on how best to proceed. While there has been a groundswell of Democratic support for impeachment, Mr Biden has refused to be drawn on the matter.
Despite facing calls to invoke the 25th amendment, which sets out the process for removing a sitting president, vice president Mike Pence remained silent over the weekend. It follows reports that Mr Trump did not phone his deputy while he was caught in the capitol riots with family members on Wednesday. Some of the rioters chanted “Hang Mike Pence” during the siege.
Banned
Meanwhile, Mr Trump, who was banned from twitter on Friday night, plans to visit Texas to inspect the border wall tomorrow.
It comes as arrests took place across the United States this weekend as some of those responsible for last week’s riot in the US Capitol were charged with federal offenses.
In Arizona, a prominent supporter of the Q-Anon conspiracy movement was arrested. Jacob Chansley is widely believed to be the man photographed wearing horns and carrying a spear in the US Capitol on Wednesday.
36 year-old Adam Johnson, who was pictured carrying Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s lectern, was charged in Florida.
In Alabama, Ronnie Koffman was detained after police found 11 Molotov cocktails, an assault rifle and two pistols in his pick-up truck near the Capitol.
The arrests took place as the FBI appealed for information from the public after Wednesday’s events which saw supporters of Mr Trump storm the US Capitol in Washington. Police and fire departments in at least four states are investigating claims that off-duty officers may have been involved in Wednesday’s events.
Security has been heightened around the Capitol complex following the attack and ahead of the January 20th presidential inauguration. Social media company Twitter warned on Friday night that plans for future armed protests had “already begun proliferating on and off-Twitter, including a proposed secondary attack on the US Capitol and state capitol buildings on January 17th, 2021.”
A procession took place along Constitution Avenue for Brian Sicknick, the Capitol Hill police officer who died from injuries sustained while defending the Capitol on Sunday. In total, five people died in connection with Wednesday’s attack.
The White House belatedly lowered its flag on Sunday afternoon to mark the passing of Mr Sicknick, four days after the Capitol had lowered its flags to half-staff.
While the halls of Congress were empty as members returned to their districts for the weekend, the Capitol physician warned that some members may have been exposed to coronavirus while hiding from rioters.
In an email to members, Dr Brian Monahan said that one person in a room occupied by House members for several hours had tested positive for Covid.
As the fallout from last week’s attack on Congress continued, several Republicans called on Mr Trump to resign.
Resign
“I think the best way for our country…is for the president to resign and go away as soon as possible,” said Pennsylvania senator Pat Toomey
He also accused Republican senators who voted to reject the election results during last week’s joint session of Congress as “complicit” in Mr Trump’s lies.
“They compounded that with this notion that somehow this could all be reversed in the final moments of the congressional proceedings. So that’s, that’s going to be, that’s going to haunt them for a very long time,” he said.
Prominent conservatives denounced the decision by Twitter to ban Mr Trump, accusing the social media giant of censorship.
Complaining that she had lost 50,000 twitter followers, former White House press secretary Sarah Sanders wrote: “The radical left and their big tech allies cannot marginalise, censor, or silence the American people. This is not China, this is United States of America, and we are a free country.”
Many Trump-supporting figures said they were moving to social media site Parler, a favourite of conservatives. But Amazon, Apple and Google all moved to ban the Parler app.
