Donald Trump he conquered a new historical record: he is the first president in the history of the United States to be installed under impeachment twice.
The House, with a democratic majority, in fact voted in favor of opening a new impeachment procedure after the one attempted in 2019 due to the pressure placed on the Ukrainian president to open an investigation into Joe Biden. 232 deputies voted in favor, including 10 Republicans, 197 votes against.
This time the accusation is still heavy: incitement to insurrection for the role played by the outgoing president in the assault on Congress by hundreds of his supporters during the demonstration on 6 January in which 5 people were killed, including a policeman.
However, the accusations against Trump do not only concern the attack on Capitol Hill, but also refer to the numerous statements made by Trump after Election Day on November 3rd. The President has repeated many times that he believes fraudulent result of the election, speaking of fraud never tried (and indeed always denied by the competent authorities), presenting appeals rejected by all the Courts concerned and going so far as to threaten state officials of Georgia so that they could rig the electoral result by "finding" over 11 thousand votes in his favor.
We recall that the indictment proposal was voted on after the Republicans rejected the request, intended for Vice President Mike Pence, to remove the incumbent president, using the 25th amendment.
However, it is not yet said that the impeachment procedure will be "successful". After the favorable vote of the House, the resolution will have to pass the Senate where it will have to be approved with 66 votes out of 100. It is unlikely that the passage to the Senate will take place before January 20, the day on which President-elect Joe Biden and the new Democratic-majority Congress are scheduled to take office in the White House, also because the Senate is currently suspended and will only meet again on January 19th.
Even if he was impeached, Trump will therefore remain in office until the natural expiration of his mandate. What was the use of activating the procedure, then? First of all to give a political response to one of the most serious events in the democratic history of the United States. Secondly, if the Senate also votes in favor of the impeachment, "accessory sanctions" could also be established, including the ineligibility of Trump, who therefore could not run for the 2024 elections and the cut in the annuity that it belongs to former presidents.
If, on the other hand, the procedure arrives in the Senate before January 20, the current representatives could decide. The Senate today still has a Republican majority, but several GOP lawmakers have already indicated their willingness to vote in favor of impeachment.
