Trump Impeached.

[Workingman]

232 to 197.

First in history to be impeached twice!

It now goes the the Senate where a 2/3 majority is needed.

He will see out his term as there is not enough time for the Senate vote. If he loses there he loses the perks set aside for a former President and he will never be able to stand for any government office ever again. Even if he wins he can say goodbye to running again as the GOP will never pick him.

Was it the right thing to do? I am not sure. Time will tell but it could actually hurt both parties.

[Osc]

Yes, absolutely the right thing to do, although it is a bit depressing that so many voted against impeachment. I was afraid that they wouldn’t do it as Biden’s inauguration is so near. All his inflammatory rhetoric since the election has been leading up to the attack on the Capitol on the 6th, and it appears more and more as if the demonstrators had inside help. It is very satisfying seeing Trump’s business supporters gradually dumping him. I am not naturally vindictive, but I hope this nasty man and his family have their lives made miserable post-WH.

[cromwell]

You might not be vindictive Osc but the Democrats are. They never really accepted that he had beaten their golden girl, Hilary Clinton.
If this is the way Joe Biden intends to "heal America" then all I can say is good luck with it.

[Suff]

There won't be enough Republicans in the senate who will turn against the party to make the impeachment stick. That's my take.

When all is said and done, the Republicans could not survive the loss of support that impeachment of their President would create. It is one thing being outvoted, it is entirely another voting to impeach your own president.

Because 1/3 of the senate is re-elected every 2 years, only those elected in November could withstand the backlash of turning on Trump and not all of them will be inclined anyway.

I don't see it succeeding. But even trying again, so close to the inauguration, will have caused a level of simmering anger which will not be over by 2022; when the house and 1/3 of the senate are up for election again.

Most non Americans don't understand just how close the political system is to the electorate and how accountable those politicians are. In most countries with 4/5 year parliamentary lifetimes, it is possible to do things in the first 1/2 years which will be out of the minds of the public come the next election. In the US there is literally no 2 year period where a large swathe of the politicians are not being held accountable at the polls.

If I were interested enough, I could take a list of Republican house members who voted to impeach trump and track their success rate at the 2022 election. But I'm sure someone else will do that. It makes you wonder if the US is finally willing to break out of two party politics? The other two parties are so small as to be virtually insignificant at elections. Trump created a whole genre of slogans which had solid backing. America First being one of them. It will be of minor interest to see if the Trump supporters can bridge the gap and move to a separate political party.

[Kaz]

Yes, absolutely the right thing to do, although it is a bit depressing that so many voted against impeachment. I was afraid that they wouldn’t do it as Biden’s inauguration is so near. All his inflammatory rhetoric since the election has been leading up to the attack on the Capitol on the 6th, and it appears more and more as if the demonstrators had inside help. It is very satisfying seeing Trump’s business supporters gradually dumping him. I am not naturally vindictive, but I hope this nasty man and his family have their lives made miserable post-WH.

Exactly how I feel Osc xx

[Workingman]

Ossie and Kaz, one side of my brain agrees with you. Trump's actions during his term have broken the US, split it down the middle in so many ways, including his own party, and for that he deserves everything he gets.

The other asks how such action by the Democrats will "heal America" as they claim to want to do?

With all the cracks appearing in the GOP the Dems are in a good position for a few years yet and could, for some while, hold both houses. Why, at this time, give the other side a rallying cry? As Suff says, there is a danger of the GOP splitting into doves and hawks, even a new party. Leave them to it. If the Dems get involved it will come back to bite them some time down the line.

There are times when it is wiser to sit back and let events take their course, and this could be one of them.

[Suff]

Trump has damaged himself and the GOP more effectively than any impeachment could.

Impeachment, at this point in time, after Trump lost, can only be seen as spite and could heal a lot of the divisions in the GOP.

The Dems like to forget that a full 20% of the US voters are floating voters. Some lean towards GOP but are put off by Trump. Some lean to the Dems, but are put off by the way the Dems want to increase government and put more constraints on the life of the average US citizen.

I just don't see that this kind of activity is worth the cost and it runs a very high political risk. Trump imploded, censuring him now would be far, far, more effective than trying to impeach him.

This is one of those times where the personal satisfaction quotient needs to be foregone.

[TheOstrich]

You might not be vindictive Osc but the Democrats are. They never really accepted that he had beaten their golden girl, Hilary Clinton.
If this is the way Joe Biden intends to "heal America" then all I can say is good luck with it.

Absolutely this. The Democrats could have risen above it, shown themselves to be so much more mature than Trump and his supporters, but they have chosen not to. By being determined to pursue impeachment - surely a meaningless gesture with the Inauguration less than 7 days away - they may have opened irreconcilable divisions across the United States. A golden opportunity to "heal" completely missed by partisan politics.

If the Democrats intend to pursue impeachment after the inauguration, what will be the outcome? The only sanction against Ex-President Trump will be that he will be barred from holding public office again. So what? Did you notice a certain Donald J Trump Jnr made a keynote rallying-call speech to the "faithful" recently? If Trump forms a breakaway "Make America Great Again" party with his son at the helm, expect a very interesting 2024 election.

[Suff]

It is not as if Trump needs the pay packet he will lose.

[Osc]

The Democrats could have risen above it, shown themselves to be so much more mature than Trump and his supporters, but they have chosen not to.

They tried that for four years, politeness and decorum got them nowhere. The only way to deal with a bully is to push back and they did not do that enough. Look back at what Hillary said about him during her campaign, she has been proven right about everything. I can see that she was the wrong choice at the time, and find it dismaying that all younger candidates were knocked out during the primaries this time, but it is not Joe Biden’s first time around the block, he has 40+ years of experience. It does concern me that 74m Americans think that Trump is sent from god