A few days before resignation, the House of Representatives passed the impeachment of the Senate and the vote was postponed until January 20
Trump's political fate remains to be revealed after Biden takes office
□ Our reporter Chen Runze
With the passage of the impeachment clause by the House of Representatives on January 13, Trump, who has only a few days remaining in office, became the first president in American history to be impeached twice during his tenure.
The Senate's review of the impeachment clause will be postponed until President-elect Biden takes office on January 20.
Once Trump is found guilty by the Senate, his political career will come to an end. Not only will he not be able to hold any public office in the future, but the road to election in 2024 will also be completely blocked.
House of Representatives passes impeachment clause
On January 11, local time, in view of the congressional riots that occurred on the 6th, the Democrats in the House of Representatives formally submitted a draft impeachment clause against Trump.
The impeachment clause accuses Trump of "inciting rebellion," requiring him to be "impeached and tried, removed from his presidency, and disqualified from relevant honors, credits, and paid positions."
On the afternoon of the 13th, members of both parties in the U.S. House of Representatives passed an impeachment case against Trump with 232 votes in favor and 197 against after a debate.
All Democrats in the House of Representatives and 10 Republicans voted in favor.
This impeachment has only been more than a year since Trump was impeached last time.
The last impeachment was due to Trump's request for the Ukrainian president to investigate his opponent Biden, this time it was because of "inciting supporters to rebel."
The impeachment clause also pointed out that Trump has repeatedly made false statements and interfered in the peaceful transition of power, seriously endangering the security of the United States and government institutions, and causing obvious harm to the American people. If he continues to govern, it will be harmful to national security, democracy and the Constitution. threatening.
Compared with the three-month investigation and evidence collection time of the last impeachment, it only took one week from the congressional riots to the House of Representatives's approval of the impeachment.
In this regard, the American media believes that the Democrats' rapid accusations against Trump and the subsequent unsurprising results of the House of Representatives vote once again highlight the sharpness of American party opposition and the seriousness of political polarization.
A few hours after the impeachment clause was passed, Biden issued a statement on the matter, stating that the vote of the House of Representatives to "impeach and hold the president accountable" was a vote made by members of both parties in accordance with the Constitution and their conscience.
Speaker of the House of Representatives Pelosi and other politicians who support impeachment also celebrated.
Compared with the joy of political opponents, Trump's voice is slightly dim.
In previous political events, Trump has always spoken out through social media.
However, in the face of the major incident that the impeachment clause was passed by the House of Representatives, he had to make a statement through the White House after multiple social media accounts were blocked, saying that he did not support any form of violence and that the person besieging the Capitol was not his real Supporters, but did not mention the subject of his second impeachment.
Senate vote postponed until 20 days later
US law stipulates that after the House of Representatives passes the impeachment clause, the Senate will hear the impeachment case.
However, the Senate is currently in a recession.
According to the plan, the Senate will resume its meeting on January 19.
Senate Republican McConnell said on the 13th that he would not resume the meeting early on the terms of impeachment.
Therefore, it can be expected that the Senate trial of Trump's impeachment case will be conducted after Biden takes office on the 20th.
This will also be the first impeachment trial against a previous president in American history.
According to the US Constitution, in the voting after the Senate trial, if more than two-thirds of the members believe that the impeachment clause is established, the president will be removed from office, otherwise he will be acquitted.
In the new Senate, the Democrats and Republicans each have 50 seats. Therefore, the Democrats need at least 17 Republicans to vote for it before they can convict Trump.
US media reported that as many as 20 Republican senators are currently "open" to finding Trump guilty, but it is unclear whether their attitude will change during the voting.
The media believe that McConnell's position is very crucial and will become a weather vane for Republicans.
However, he said he has not yet decided whether or not to vote in favor of it then.
It is worth mentioning that the congressional riots have prompted many Republicans to draw a line with Trump.
In this vote in the House of Representatives, 10 Republicans joined the Democratic camp and voted for the impeachment of Trump, including the No. 3 Republican in the House of Representatives and Representative Cheney of Wyoming.
When Trump was impeached by Congress for the first time in 2019, no Republicans voted for impeachment.
The US media therefore believes that Republican senators may make decisions after carefully weighing political risks in the future.
If Trump is convicted after leaving office, he will lose many of the rights that the outgoing president can enjoy.
In addition, if Trump is convicted, the Senate may vote again to ban him from holding public office in the future.
This means that Trump will not be able to run for president again.
Social unrest increased before and after taking office
On January 20, Biden will formally take office as President of the United States, and Trump will step down amidst the controversy.
His impeachment will continue to ferment after the inauguration day on the 20th.
This is like a "double-edged sword" that will further intensify the contradictions between the Democratic and Republican parties and intensify the tearing of American society.
At the same time, the ever-increasing tearing of American society has also made the transition of power dangerous.
Republican Senator Graham, chairman of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, warned on the 13th that the impeachment of Trump in the current situation will cause huge damage to government agencies and may further anger Trump supporters and cause more serious problems. Social turmoil.
Public opinion in the United States is worried that there may be national armed protests on the occasion of the inauguration of the president.
It is reported that in order to ensure the safety of the presidential inauguration on the 20th, the US police increased the number of National Guards deployed to Washington to more than 20,000.
However, the Trump-supporting groups dismissed this and are still preparing for demonstrations and claiming to be "armed."
In the future, no matter how the impeachment incident develops, it is bound to have an adverse effect on the Republican Party.
The Republican Party has successively lost the House of Representatives, the White House, and the Senate. The continued fermentation of impeachment will undoubtedly make the Republican Party more divided internally and external support will also be lost.
For Biden and the Democrats, even if the impeachment is successful, the fight between the donkey and the elephant will be unprecedentedly intensified, and Biden's vision of "healing the country" may become empty talk.
In this regard, an article published on the website of the Russian Strategic Culture Foundation recently evaluated that the United States is currently facing political problems, ethnic problems, social crises, population crises and economic recession.
After Biden took office as President of the United States, there is still a long way to go to bridge the division and revitalize the United States.