As Congress prepares to indict Donald Trump for encouraging the assault on Capitol Hill a week ago, US President Donald Trump on Wednesday called on "all Americans to help ease tensions."
United States President Donald Trump on Wednesday appealed for calm to "all Americans" as new protests across the country approach.
"I ask you: no violence, no crime, no vandalism," wrote the tenant of the White House in a brief statement sent as Congress prepares to indict him for encouraging the assault on the Capitol a week ago.
"I call on ALL Americans to help ease the tension"
"It's not what we stand for and it's not what America stands for," he added.
"I call on ALL Americans to help ease tensions," he wrote.
The Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi had just solemnly accused the 45th President of the United States of having "incited this insurrection, this armed rebellion".
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"He must go, he is an obvious and immediate danger against the nation that we all love," she hammered into a barricaded Congress just before the vote on this indictment for having encouraged the January 6 assault which killed five people and shook American democracy.
The White House under close surveillance
The federal capital, placed under very high security, was unrecognizable.
Striking images: dozens of military reservists spent the night inside Congress, still sleeping on the ground even as elected officials poured in.
Concrete blocks have been placed to block the main axes of the city center, huge metal gates surround many federal buildings, including the White House.
The National Guard is everywhere.
The vote in the House of Representatives on the indictment is scheduled for around 3:00 p.m. (8:00 p.m. GMT).
Its outcome, which is not in doubt in the Democratic-controlled lower house, will mark the formal opening of the impeachment procedure against Donald
Trump, who will become the first president in history to be twice indicted in Congress.