Here we go again, baby: US President Donald Trump has officially been impeached a second time.
The US House of Representatives today voted to impeach Trump for “inciting violence against the government of the United States”, based on his incendiary messages of support to the MAGA extremists who stormed the US Capitol building last week.
In pretty remarkable scenes, a handful of Republican pollies crossed the floor to side with the Democrats on the impeachment proceedings. Rats fleeing a sinking ship is also a remarkable scene, but hey.
This new impeachment means Trump will face trial in the Senate yet again. If the senators – who effectively act as jurors during the trial – find Trump guilty, he’ll be booted from office and potentially barred from ever holding an official governmental position in the future.
Not great for his 2024 chances, then.
This impeachment is markedly different from the 2019 edition, in which Democrats tried to boot Trump for allegedly turning to a foreign power – Ukraine, in this instance – to find dirt on his political rival, current President-elect Joe Biden.
That effort failed in the Senate, thanks to a strong Republican opposition. But this attempt, which has reportedly received the backroom support of Republican bigwigs in the Senate, has a different ~energy~ about it.
It’s also notable that Trump is slated to leave office on January 20 anyway. However, the fact that his most ardent supporters can be mobilised to violently contest the election results has obviously encouraged pollies to dump him sooner rather than later.
Hachi machi.
