They were talking about impeaching him before he was even sworn in, which tells you a lot about the seriousness of this. Whoopdie-Doo

BLUF:
If Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell does not attempt to reconvene the Senate, it all but guarantees Trump won’t be tried in the Senate until after 1 p.m. on Jan. 20, an hour after he becomes an ex-president.

House impeaches Trump a second time, but conviction and removal are unlikely.

The House impeached President Trump for the second time Wednesday, charging him for behavior they believe caused the violent Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol that left five dead, dozens injured, and the historic building defaced and damaged.

Ten House Republicans joined all House Democrats to pass a single impeachment article accusing Trump of inciting an insurrection.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, must now decide when to send the article to the Senate, which is not scheduled to be in session until Jan. 19 and is unlikely to consider it until after Trump leaves office.

Trump’s term ends on Jan. 20 at 12 p.m.

But Democrats made the case during the one-day proceeding that Trump is too dangerous to remain in office a moment longer, coming to the floor to suggest Trump may incite additional violence, move to pardon the protesters charged in the Capitol siege, or even start a nuclear war during his final days in office.

“He must go,” Pelosi said on the House floor. “He is a clear and present danger to the nation we all love.”

The House impeached Trump one day after Democrats and one Republican passed a measure pressing Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment and remove Trump by declaring him unfit for office.

Pence replied to Pelosi ahead of the vote Tuesday night, informing her he wouldn’t move to replace Trump, who he said was not incapacitated.

Most House Republicans voted against impeachment. Some said they favored censure or another step to respond to the Jan. 6 attack, which came during a massive protest by Trump supporters to contest Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election. Trump appeared at the event, and while he called for protesters to demonstrate peacefully at the Capitol, throngs of them broke in or walked into the Capitol, and some broke doors and windows, defaced artifacts, and took over the Senate chamber. One protester was killed by a U.S. Capitol Police officer as she attempted to climb through a busted window steps from the House chamber. Officer Brian Sicknick was killed by a protester in the chaos.

Opening the debate Wednesday morning, House Rules Committee Chairman Jim McGovern called the House chamber “a crime scene” and said Trump can’t be trusted to hold the office even for the seven days that remain of his term.

“Every moment Donald Trump is in the White House, our nation, our freedom, is in danger,” McGovern said.

Rep. Jim Jordan, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, led the opposition to impeachment on the House floor.

Jordan, of Ohio, who has been a Trump ally and defender, said Democrats have spent Trump’s entire term attacking him and attempting to remove him from office. Democrats have several times taken up impeachment resolutions over the past four years, and while some were tabled, they successfully impeached Trump on corruption charges in December 2019.

“It’s always been about getting the president,” Jordan said. “It’s an obsession.”

Jordan said Democrats are moving to “cancel” Trump and erase his major accomplishments, which include tax cuts, economic and job gains, border security, and foreign policy advances.

“It’s about canceling the president and anyone who agrees with him,” Jordan said.

Republicans also pointed out statements made by Democrats, including Pelosi, that appear to support or encourage uprisings and violence, quoting their past statements repeatedly, including one by Pelosi in 2018 in which she questioned why there are not “more uprisings all over the country.”

“The double standard has to end,” Jordan said.

Pelosi told reporters in the Capitol she did not have an immediate announcement on when the House will transmit the impeachment article to the Senate.

She named Democratic impeachment managers Tuesday night.

If Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell does not attempt to reconvene the Senate, it all but guarantees Trump won’t be tried in the Senate until after 1 p.m. on Jan. 20, an hour after he becomes an ex-president.

McConnell rejected a request by Minority Leader and New York Democrat Chuck Schumer to use an emergency procedure to reconvene the Senate.

That means, even if McConnell tries to call senators back before Jan. 19, he would need consent from all 99 sitting senators, and it would take the opposition of just one of them to block the session from taking place any earlier.

Convicting Trump would also require two-thirds support from the Senate, which would require the support of 18 Republicans, a high hurdle.

The Senate majority shifts to the Democrats on Jan. 20, when incoming Vice President Kamala Harris takes the oath of office and is empowered with breaking a 50-50 tie vote in the Senate.

Democrats must then decide whether to take time up in the Senate holding a trial on an impeachment article for an ex-president or get to work passing a Democratic agenda, including new COVID-19 aid and $2,000 stimulus checks.

Schumer made no mention of a Senate impeachment trial in a memo to fellow Democrats this week outlining the agenda when they take over on Jan. 20.

“As our first order of legislative business, please prepare to address additional COVID emergency relief legislation,” Schumer said.

Under Senate rules, the Senate could conduct legislative business in the hours it is not convened for trial.