2nd Trump Impeachment: How California Voted

CALIFORNIA — U.S. representatives from the Golden State voted for impeaching President Donald Trump on a charge that he incited the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol last week. The House voted 232-197 in favor, making Trump the first president in U.S. history to be impeached twice.

Ten Republicans voted for impeaching the president on Wednesday, including Rep. David Valadao (R-Hanford), his office told Patch.

"Based on the facts before me, I have to go with my gut and vote my conscience. I voted to impeach President Trump," Valadao tweeted moments after the historic motion. "His inciting rhetoric was un-American, abhorrent, and absolutely an impeachable offense. It’s time to put country over politics."

Going forward, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) named nine Democrats to lead the impeachment trial, including Reps. Eric Swalwell (East Bay) and Ted Lieu (West Los Angeles). The two Golden State congressmen will help argue the case in an upcoming Senate trial. Lieu was one of three Democrats who presented the articles of impeachment.

"We cannot heal as a nation if we just ignore what happened on Wednesday," Lieu told ABC7 on Tuesday. "And we cannot ignore that Donald Trump incited his domestic terrorists to invade the Capitol to stop congressional proceedings that were going to show Joe Biden [and] Kamala Harris won the election, and that's the definition of sedition, and we can't just ignore it and wish it didn't happen. It did, and that's why we have to take strong action."

During the debate, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) said the president "bears responsibility" for the siege of the U.S. Capitol but added that he opposed impeachment. Pelosi maintained that Trump is a "clear and present danger" as long as he remains in power.

On the House floor, California representatives on both sides of the political divide voiced impassioned arguments for and against impeaching Trump for “incitement of insurrection” in the very chamber in which the insurgency unfolded last week.

"I'm the only member of Congress who's been involved in all three of the last presidential impeachments. Those were long proceedings," Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Santa Clara) said on the House floor Wednesday. "Today, we don't need a long investigation to know that the president incited right-wing terrorists to attack the Congress to try to overturn the constitutional government."

Members on both sides of the aisle tussled over the very interpretation of free speech and whether the Impeachment Clause should be activated without a hearing.

"The founders devised the Impeachment Clause to protect against a president who would threaten constitutional order," Lofgren said. "If we don't act now, the Impeachment Clause will essentially be meaningless."

Republican Rep. Tom McClintock of Roseville condemned the notion of impeaching Trump, rallying behind the sentiment that the president merely gave an impassioned speech on Jan. 6.

"We've set some dangerous new precedents that will haunt us for years to come," McClintock said on the House floor. "Yesterday we redefined intemperate speech as a physical incapacity requiring removal from office. Today we define it as a high crime and misdemeanor." He added: "The moment any member of this body gives an impassioned speech and a lunatic fringe of their movement takes license from it, be prepared to answer to this new precedent that's being established today."

California Republican Rep. Young Kim condemned last week's violence in a statement, urging that both parties "must set a better example" and condemn violence, but she opposed impeachment. "I believe censuring the president is a better option. This would be a strong rebuke of his actions and rhetoric and unite our country and chamber, rather than divide it," she said.

The historic House vote took place a week after a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in a siege that resulted in five deaths — including the beating death of a Capitol Police officer — as well as multiple arrests and a sprawling FBI investigation. The impeachment came a week before President-elect Joe Biden is to be inaugurated in a city on high alert amid ongoing threats of violence.

"Why is our nation’s Capitol now an armed fortress? Why are 50 state capitols potentially under attack?" Lieu tweeted Wednesday. "Because [Trump] continues to spread the big lie that the election was stolen. Donald Trump continues to inflame the violent part of the [GOP] base. He must be removed immediately."

Here’s how the California delegation voted on the impeachment

California Democrats unanimously voted to impeach Trump on Wednesday, with one state Republican, Valadao, joining in to cast a vote in favor of impeachment.

And these California Republican representatives — Ken Calvert, Mike Garcia, Darrell Issa, Young Kim, Doug LaMalfa, Tom McClintock, Kevin McCarthy, Devin Nunes, Jay Obernolte and Michelle Steel — voted against impeachment.

The final House vote was 232-197 in favor of impeachment.

Read More On Patch: The Latest On Impeachment As More Violence, Assassinations Threatened

What's next

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky reportedly may allow the Senate to vote to convict Trump, an extraordinary turn by the Republican leader who has defended and protected Trump during the four years of his tumultuous presidency.

• If an impeachment trial is allowed in the Senate, it will be after Biden is inaugurated, McConnell said Wednesday. McConnell has reportedly said he believes Trump committed impeachable offenses and that moving forward with a vote would make it easier for Republicans to purge Trumpism from their party.

• Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the third-ranking member of the House Republican leadership, is among more than two dozen Republicans who signaled they would break from their party and vote to impeach Trump.

• "There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution," she said in a statement Tuesday.

Trial in the Senate

Two-thirds of the chamber would have to vote to convict Trump. The Senate exonerated Trump last year on charges of abuse of power and contempt of Congress after special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, but the charge against Trump this time is more clear-cut.

If the Senate convicts Trump, it could hold a second vote to prevent him from holding federal office again. That would require only a simple majority vote.

As lawmakers debated the need for and grave potential consequence of impeaching Trump for a second time, the FBI warned of armed protests in the days ahead of Biden’s inauguration. Statehouses in all 50 states have been targeted for protests.

The agency is also monitoring chatter on an encrypted messaging platform about plans by Trump extremists to form perimeters around the Capitol, the White House and the Supreme Court building as Biden takes the oath of office.

The impeachment vote came after Vice President Mike Pence declined to convene the Cabinet to invoke their power under the 25th Amendment to declare Trump unfit to complete his term Tuesday. Pence said in a letter to Pelosi that doing so wasn’t in the best interest of the nation.

"A president's greatest responsibility is to protect American lives and defend American ideals," Swalwell, who spoke on the House floor on Wednesday, wrote in a statement that morning. "Donald Trump has failed to do both. For the safety of all Americans and the continuity of our experiment in self-governance, Donald Trump must be removed from office."

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Los Angeles) also tweeted before the House debate on Wednesday.

"I have nothing but contempt for those in Congress who helped perpetuate his big lie," Schiff wrote. "And continued to push it even after our Capitol was attacked. They are complicit."

SEE ALSO:

• Ted Lieu Describes Capitol Riot, Sponsors Articles Of Impeachment
• Impeachment Vote: SW Riverside County GOP Lawmakers Call For Calm
• Impeachment Vote: Rep. Young Kim Seeks President's Censure

"The domestic terrorists that attacked the Capitol did so based on Donald Trump’s incitement. @POTUS was not surprised by the attack because he intended for the attack on democracy to occur. He was trying to maintain power by any means necessary," Lieu tweeted Wednesday morning.

Democratic Rep. Mark DeSaulnier, whose 11th District includes most of western and central Contra Costa County, voted to impeach Trump after last week's violent assault on the Capitol and weighed in on Tuesday.

"I think we came dangerously close to losing American democracy on Wednesday," said DeSaulnier in a 50-minute town hall event Tuesday streamed on his Facebook page. "I don't think it could have happened without the president of the United States."

Patch staffer Paige Austin and Bay City News contributed to this report.