2nd Trump Impeachment: How CT House Delegation Voted

CONNECTICUT — Connecticut's congressional delegation on Wednesday voted to impeach 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. All House Democrats, including Connecticut's five representatives, and 10 Republicans voted in favor of impeachment.

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 killing of a Capitol police officer. Multiple have been arrested amid a sprawling FBI investigation. The impeachment comes a week before President-elect Joe Biden is to be inaugurated in a city on high alert amid ongoing threats of violence.

“Not accepting the will of the American people, the president unleashed the most horrific violence that overwhelmed the security forces at this Capitol, which was overrun for the first time since 1812, putting the lives of so many at risk,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro, of Connecticut's 3rd District, said on the House floor. “Indeed a day of infamy. This impeachment will be viewed as a transcendent vote where all will be judged.”

Rep. Jim Himes, of Connecticut's 4th District, urged his Republican colleagues to consider their legacies ahead of the vote.

“Search your soul, consider your oath and I add four more words: reflect on your legacy,” he said. “My friends, which way is history flowing right now? Will Donald Trump join the pantheon of Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt and Reagan or will his 33 percent approval ratings and the condemnation of principled republicans consign him to the heap of reviled demagogues with Joseph McCarthy and Andrew Johnson. Where he goes in history, you go in history, unless today you make a stand.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky will not allow the Senate to vote to convict Trump — which would have been an extraordinary turn by a 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. He said Wednesday he intends to “listen to the legal arguments when they are presented to the Senate.”

McConnell's staff said he will defer to New York Democrat Chuck Schumer, who will become the new majority leader, to manage the process.

Biden suggested the Senate could “bifurcate” — that is, spend half the day confirming his Cabinet nominees and the other half on impeachment matters.

Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, 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.

A two-thirds majority of the Senate would be needed to convict Trump. The Senate exonerated him last year on charges of abuse of power and contempt of Congress after special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. The charge against Trump this time is more clear-cut.

Under the Constitution, the Senate could prevent him from holding federal office again and strip him of other perks afforded to former presidents.

Connecticut's Democratic senators, Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal, said Trump should be held accountable.

As lawmakers debated the need for and consequences 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.

• Read more: Trump Impeached On Bipartisan Vote; New Threats Put U.S. On Edge