By Martins Ifijeh in New Jersey, USA
As outrage over last week’s Capitol Hill riot grows, some members of the House of Representatives have on Monday, introduced a single article of Impeachment against President Donald Trump.
He is being charged with inciting a mob of his supporters to carry out a violent attack on the Capitol in a bid to overturn Joe Biden’s election victory, who is billed to be sworn in January 20.
The article, co-authored by Reps. David Cicilline, Ted Lieu, and Jamie Raskin states that Trump engaged in high crimes and misdemeanors by “willfully inciting violence against the government of the United States.”
In a speech outside the White House before Wednesday’s assault, Trump had claimed that he won the election, urging thousands of his fans to march to the Capitol to support his GOP allies, using phrases like “you have to show strength” and “if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”
Five people, including Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, were killed as the pro-Trump mob stormed the building to stop House and Senate lawmakers from certifying the Electoral College results.
The Capitol has now been categorised as the scene of a federal murder investigation.
Threats were heard against Vice President Mike Pence and individual lawmakers, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The impeachment article reads in part: “Incited by President Trump, members of the crowd he had addressed, in an attempt to interfere with the Joint Session’s solemn constitutional duty to certify the results of the 2020 Presidential election, unlawfully breached and vandalised the Capitol, injured and killed law enforcement personnel, menaced Members of Congress, the Vice President and Congressional personnel, and engaged in other violent, deadly, destructive, and seditious acts.
“President Trump gravely endangered the security of the United states and its institutions of government. He threatened the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful transfer of power, and imperiled a coequal branch of government. He thereby betrayed his trust as president, to the manifest injury of the people of the United States.”
Pelosi has told Democrats they will move forward with the impeachment vote immediately if Pence and the Cabinet does not invoke the 25th Amendment and remove Trump from power
