Trump facing historic “impeachment” a week after storming Capitol Hill

Reinforced by the refusal of his right-hand man Mike Pence to oust him from power, it is a combative Donald Trump, contesting any responsibility in the assault on the Capitol led by his supporters, which will face Wednesday a second historic procedure of ” impeachment “.

The pace picked up on Tuesday evening in Congress towards the formal opening of impeachment proceedings against the American president, accused by the Democrats of having “incited to insurrection” of his supporters during the violence of January 6, which left five dead in Washington.

But the stormy president was convinced that no one would rush out of the White House until the end of his term on Jan. 20.

He tried Tuesday to adopt a less aggressive posture, evoking the time “of peace and calm”, from Alamo, Texas. He also tried to reduce the procedure aimed at him to a maneuver by the Democrats, a new “witch hunt”.

“The 25th Amendment does not represent any risk for me,” he also said, sure of himself after a meeting with Mike Pence in the Oval Office.

In the evening, his vice-president effectively announced that he refused to invoke this amendment to the Constitution which would allow him to declare Donald Trump unfit to exercise his function, as claimed by the Democrats.

In the process, the powerful Democratic Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, turned her gaze to “impeachment”, revealing the team of “prosecutors” who will be responsible for carrying the case.

Supported by a large number of Democrats, and with even the support of a handful of Republicans, the indictment targeting Donald Trump should be easily passed on Wednesday in the lower house.

On Tuesday evening, Liz Cheney, one of the House Republican minority leaders and daughter of the former US Vice President, announced that she would vote for. “None of this would have happened without the president,” she said in a vitriolic statement.

The 45th American president should thus become Wednesday the first in history to be twice indicted in Congress (“impeached”) in impeachment proceedings.

– Trump isolated –

When he left Washington on Tuesday morning, Donald Trump denounced this procedure, deeming it “totally ridiculous” and claiming that it aroused “immense anger” across the United States.

And he stubbornly refused to admit any responsibility in the assault on Capitol Hill, deeming his speech to have been “quite appropriate”.

Despite his displayed confidence and the support of some very loyal elected officials, Donald Trump is more isolated than ever after a series of resignations from his government and very strong criticism from his own camp.

According to the New York Times, Mitch McConnell, president of the Republican majority in the Senate, told his relatives that he viewed the impeachment initiated by the Democrats favorably, saying that it would help the Republican Party to turn definitively. the Trump page.

This clever strategist may hold the key to the outcome of this historic process.

Because the only real doubt that remains concerns the conduct of the trial, which will then have to take place in the Senate, today with a Republican majority.

Democrats will take control of the upper house on January 20 but will need the rallying of many Republicans to achieve the two-thirds majority needed for conviction.

A lawsuit would also risk hampering legislative action by Democrats at the start of the Biden presidency, by monopolizing Senate sessions.

President-elect Joe Biden will be sworn in under high guard on January 20, right on the steps of the Capitol, seat of the US Congress.

Criticized for having delayed, last Wednesday, to send the National Guard, the Pentagon this time authorized the deployment of 15,000 soldiers for the inauguration ceremony.

“I’m not afraid” despite the risks of further pro-Trump protests, Joe Biden said on Monday.

During his brief stop in Texas, Donald Trump praised the wall built on the border with Mexico at length. “I kept my promises,” he said, referring to a 450-mile (725-kilometer) wall.

However, we are far, very far from the “great, magnificent” wall promised during the 2016 campaign. And Mexico has never paid for the wall, as the real estate mogul had promised.