2nd Trump Impeachment: How VA's House Delegation Voted

VIRGINIA — U.S. representatives from Virginia voted to/voted against/split on 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 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 beating death of a Capitol Police officer, multiple arrests and 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.

"This is a moment of truth my friends," U.S. Rep. Gerald Connolly (D-11th) said, during the debate leading up to the vote. "Are you on the side of chaos and the mob or on the side of constitutional democracy and our freedom? It's that simple. That's what this vote for impeachment represents."

U.S. Rep. Robert Good (R-5th), who represents counties in the Blue Ridge and Piedmont region of Virginia, had a different opinion of the impeachment effort.

"This is a sham impeachment proceeding one week before a peaceful transition of power and ironically the culmination of a four-year effort to overturn the results of the 2016 election," he said, in a post on Twitter. "It is a simple political action, intended to try to permanently tarnish the legacy of a highly successful president, and will only cause greater division in our country."

Here’s how Virginia's delegation voted on the impeachment:

• U.S. Rep. Robert Wittman (R-1st): No
• U.S. Rep. Elaine Luria (D-2nd): Yes
• U.S. Rep. Robert "Bobby" Scott (D-3rd):Yes
• U.S. Rep. Donald McEachin (D-4th):Yes
• U.S. Rep. Robert Good (R-5th): No
• U.S. Rep. Ben Cline (R-6th): No
• U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-7th): Yes
• U.S. Rep. Don Beyer (D-8th): Yes
• U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-9th): No
• U.S. Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-10th):Yes
• U.S. Rep. Gerald Connolly (D-11th): Yes

What's Next: 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, but he won’t reconvene the Senate ahead of Biden’s inauguration.
• “While the press has been full of speculation, I have not made a final decision on how I will vote and I intend to listen to the legal arguments when they are presented to the Senate," McConnell said
• Biden has suggested the Senate could “bifurcate” — that is spend half of 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.

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.

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

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, including in Richmond. 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.

In Richmond, a State of Emergency has been declared due to the credible threats of planned protests leading up to President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration, which will take place on Jan. 20. Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney requested that the city council declare the State of Emergency, which was unanimously approved earlier this week.

On Tuesday, the collection of law enforcement agencies that are charged with providing security at the State Capitol building — including Virginia Capitol Police, the Virginia State Police, the Virginia Department of Emergency Management and others — issued a statement saying that a Unified Command "stands ready to protect legislators, City of Richmond residents and businesses and visitors."

At least 1,000 troops from the Virginia National Guard have been deployed to Washington, D.C. in advance of next week's inauguration and that number could double as threats of more violence continue, state officials said.

Intelligence shows as many as 10,000 Trump supporters have active plans to form a perimeter around the Capitol, the White House and the Supreme Court as Biden takes the oath. The reported plot, which surfaced on an encrypted communications app Telegram, also includes an assassination plot, according to intelligence reports.

Information shared on the app included instructions on making, concealing and using homemade guns and bombs, NBC News reported. Content on white supremacy has been freely shared for months on the app created by a Dubai-based messaging service, NBC reported, but chatter picked up significantly after the Capitol siege.

Chief Robert Contee of the Metropolitan Police Department estimated that more than 20,000 members of the National Guard will be deployed to D.C. in response to the threat of violence leading up to the inauguration.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser encouraged people to avoid traveling to D.C. for the inauguration.

"We have asked Americans not to come to the Washington, D.C. event, but instead to participate virtually," Bowser said. "We know that that is the right choice and the way to keep everyone safe."

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