By Joseph Patrick Kelly, College of Charleston 
and David Cason, University of North Dakota 

Donald Trump is the third U.S. president to pardon a large group of insurrectionists. His clemency toward those convicted of crimes related to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection – including seditious conspiracy and assaults on police officers – was different in key ways from the two previous efforts, by Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Ulysses S. Grant in 1873.

But they share the apparent hope that their pardons would herald periods of national harmony. As historians of the period after the Civil War, we know that for Johnson and Grant, that’s not what happened.

When Johnson became president in 1865 after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, he faced a combative Congress. Though Johnson had opposed the secession of the Southern states before the Civil War began, he agreed with former Confederate leaders that formerly enslaved people did not deserve equality with White people.

Further, as a Southerner, he wanted to maintain the social conventions and economic structure of the South by replacing enslavement with economic bondage. This economic bondage, called sharecropping, was a system by which tenant farmers rented land from large landowners.

Tenants rarely cleared enough to pay their costs and fell into debt. In effect, Johnson sought to restore the nation to how it was before the Civil War, though without legalized slavery – and sought every avenue available to thwart the plans of the Radical Republicans who controlled both houses of Congress to create full racial equality.

Johnson signed an amnesty that gave a blanket pardon to all former Confederate soldiers. However, he required formerly high-ranking Confederate officials to individually seek pardons for their involvement in the rebellion. These officials faced permanent disfranchisement and could not hold federal office if they did not seek a pardon.

When Congress was in recess, Johnson vetoed two bills that had been passed: one to help find homes for formerly enslaved people who could no longer live on the property of their enslavers, and the other to define U.S. citizenship and ensure equal protection of the laws for Black people as well as White people.

Johnson also told Southern states not to ratify the 14th Amendment, whose purpose was to enshrine both citizenship and equal protection in the Constitution.

When Congress came back in session, it continued its effort of Reconstruction of the former Confederate states – reforming their racist laws and policies to comport with the liberty and equality the Union was committed to – by overriding Johnson’s vetoes and requiring former Confederate states to ratify the 14th Amendment as a condition of readmission to the Union, but Congress could not override the pardons the president had granted.

This continued political warfare resulted in Johnson being impeached – but not convicted or removed from office. But the back-and-forth also stalled Reconstruction and efforts toward racial equality, ultimately dooming the effort.

Nathan Bedford Forrest was not covered by Johnson’s general amnesty. As a former Confederate general, he had to apply for a personal presidential pardon, which Johnson granted on July 17, 1868. Two months later, Forrest represented Tennessee at the Democratic Party’s national convention in New York City.

He also took command of the Ku Klux Klan, the unofficial militant wing of the Democratic Party. Forrest initiated the title “Grand Wizard,” a bizarre title derived from his Civil War nickname, “Wizard of the Saddle.” He became a leader of former Confederates who resisted Reconstruction through violence and terror.

After his pardon, Forrest perfected a rhetorical technique for his extremism. His biographer Court Carney described it as a multistep process, starting with, “Say something exaggerated and inflammatory that plays well with supporters.” Then, deny saying it “to maintain a semblance of professional decorum.” Then, blur the threats with “crowd pleasing humor.” It proved an effective way of threatening violence while being able to deny responsibility for any violence that occurred.

Under Forrest’s leadership, membership in the violent, racist Ku Klux Klan spread almost everywhere in the South. Records are sketchy, so it’s impossible to say how many people were lynched, but the Equal Justice Initiative has documented 2,000 lynchings of Black Americans during Reconstruction. Black women and girls were often raped by klansmen or members of its successor militias.

It’s also not possible to say how many pardoned ex-Confederates participated in the lynchings. But the violence was so widespread that just about everyone, North and South, thought the political violence was a resumption of the Civil War.

In the Piedmont of the Carolinas, klan violence amounted to a shadow government of White nationalists. Grant ordered the U.S. Army to apprehend the klansmen, and a newly minted Department of Justice prosecuted the insurrectionists for violating Civil Rights guaranteed by the 14th and 15th amendments.

After several trials that proved to be what the federal judiciary’s official history calls “dramatic spectacles,” federal judges handed down conviction after conviction.

The federal government’s decisive action allowed for a relatively free presidential election in 1872. Black voters helped Grant win in eight Southern states, contributing to his landslide victory.

But after his reelection, Grant appointed a new attorney general, who dropped the pending klan cases. Grant also pardoned klansmen who had already been convicted of crimes.

Grant hoped his gesture would encourage Southerners to accept the nation’s new birth of freedom.

It didn’t. The pardons told former Confederates that they were winning.

John Christopher Winsmith, an ex-Confederate who embraced racial equality and whose father had been shot by the KKK, wrote to Grant in 1873, “A few trials and convictions in the U.S. Courts, and then the pardoning of the criminals” had emboldened what he called “the hideous monster – Ku Kluxism.”

And a new gang arose, too: the Red Shirts, who began to murder Black people openly, not even in secret as the klan did. Two of the Red Shirts were later elected to the U.S. Senate.

Paramilitary groups established anti-democratic one-party rule in every former Confederate state, imposing discriminatory laws known as Jim Crow, which were enforced by lynchings and other forms of racial violence.

The federal government took no substantive action against this for a century, until the 20th century’s Civil Rights Movement sparked change. And it wasn’t until 2022 that Congress passed an anti-lynching bill.

Joseph Patrick Kelly is professor of literature and director of Irish and Irish American Studies, College of Charleston, and David Cason is associate professor in Honors, University of North Dakota 

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Federal judges are expressing concern over the future of justice for January 6 defendants as Donald Trump prepares to retake office and considers pardoning the participants in the Capitol attack. This week’s arrests and sentences of more alleged offenders show effort by the Department of Justice hasn’t stopped as they continue to attempt to hold those involved accountable for the violence that disrupted American democracy.

On December 18, a Texas man and a Virginia man were arrested for allegedly assaulting law enforcement during the January 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol. Authorities said their actions contributed to the chaos that interrupted the certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential victory. Earlier in the month, a South Carolina man was sentenced to prison for four misdemeanors related to the attack. On the same day, a judge sentenced a Georgia man to prison after his conviction for assaulting police officers during the riot.

The ongoing arrests and sentences come nearly three years after a mob stormed the Capitol, injuring over 140 police officers—including more than 80 from the U.S. Capitol Police and over 60 from Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department. The siege caused extensive damage, with losses estimated at over $2.8 million. In total, at least 1,561 people have faced federal charges.

However, Trump has remained adamant that those convicted are “hostages,” and “patriots.”

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who has presided over numerous Jan. 6-related cases, acknowledged her waning confidence in reassuring law enforcement that the rule of law still applies. “I’m not sure I can do that very convincingly these days,” Chutkan remarked during a recent sentencing hearing.

Chutkan isn’t alone. Fellow jurists appointed by Repubilcans and Democrats have fretted over the possibility of Trump granting clemency to those convicted.

U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell, appointed by President Barack Obama, recently condemned efforts to downplay the Capitol attack. “The rewriting of the history of Jan. 6, 2021, is incredibly disturbing,” Howell said during a sentencing hearing.

Judge Reggie Walton, a George W. Bush appointee, cautioned that continued false claims about election outcomes could tear the nation apart. “We’re headed for a breakup of this country,” Walton warned, adding, “America isn’t a third-world country.” Walton also noted that Democrats accepted their defeat in 2024 without spreading misinformation. “Mr. Trump won,” he stated. “He won legitimately just like he lost legitimately.”

According to Politico, several judges have openly criticized Trump’s rhetoric and impact on defendants’ attitudes toward the court. The outlet reported that Walton clashed with defendant Michael Bradley, who was convicted of attacking police officers with a baton. Bradley defied Walton’s authority, questioning his integrity and claiming he was “being convicted without a victim.”

Some Jan. 6 defendants have recently requested permission to attend Trump’s second inauguration, Politico noted. The Justice Department has opposed these requests, arguing that allowing defendants to return to the “scene of the crime” would dishonor the officers who defended the Capitol that day. Yet on Thursday, Chutkan permitted one defendant, Eric Peterson, to attend, issuing a terse, one-sentence order without explanation.

Judge Royce Lamberth, a Ronald Reagan appointee, captured the frustration of the judiciary in a 13-page opinion accompanying a Jan. 6 sentencing. “The true story of what happened on January 6, 2021, will never change,” he wrote, rejecting attempts by some defendants to portray themselves as victims of government persecution.

“They trashed it,” Chutkan said of the rioters’ actions in the Capitol. “They treated it like a motel room after a concert. Engaging in an act of destruction and violence in order to halt the peaceful transfer of power has to be met by consequences.”

Feature Image: Photo provided by NNPA

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By Stacy M. Brown
NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent
@StacyBrownMedia

In a protracted and contentious process that ground Congress to a halt for over three weeks, House Republicans have finally chosen a new Speaker. Mike Johnson, R-La., a lower-ranking member of the GOP leadership and notorious right-wing election denier, emerged as the victor on Wednesday, succeeding the ousted Californian Kevin McCarthy.

The long and turbulent journey, which has lingered and prevented America from aiding its Israeli and Ukraine allies, saw Johnson become the party’s fourth nominee for the role since the MAGA wing of the caucus ousted McCarthy. On Tuesday morning, Republicans initially selected Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., as their nominee, only for him to withdraw later in the day, unable to muster the 217 votes required to secure the position.

With only 221 Republicans in the House, the margin for error was slim for any nominee vying for the top spot. While the GOP celebrated the long-awaited appointment of a new speaker, some members struggled to break old voting habits. GOP Rep. Kay Granger of Texas initially voted for Rep. Mike Rogers of Alabama before eventually changing it to Mike Johnson.

In a routine unanimous show of Democratic support, all 212 members voted for New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the House Minority Leader, as Speaker. As he noted about a potential Jim Jordan speakership, Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of California said Johnson would now preside over the counting of electoral votes in the next election. “After he was deeply involved in trying to overturn the last one. Just when you think they can’t be more irresponsible, they prove you wrong,” Schiff stated.

Similarly, Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee expressed disbelief in a now-deleted social media post, saying, “I can’t believe this is happening after January 6. If Trump can get to another electoral college, House Speaker will be able to subvert votes of the people/ This is the first act in insurrection 2.0.”

Johnson, a pro-Trump election skeptic, now holds a position that could influence future election outcomes. Notable for his involvement in various controversial matters, Johnson pressed Attorney General Merrick Garland on a conspiracy theory involving the Justice Department and Hunter Biden. He also advocated for the expunging of Donald Trump’s first impeachment and pushed for a national abortion ban.

Johnson also took a more active stance in the attempt to overturn the 2020 election results. In 2020, he spearheaded efforts to rally House GOP members to support a Texas lawsuit seeking to invalidate election results in crucial states. Over 125 members eventually signed on.

Essentially, Johnson was at the forefront of rallying support for a controversial theory posited by state Attorney General Ken Paxton, aimed at overturning a U.S. presidential election. His instrumental role earned him recognition as “the most important architect of the Electoral College objections” by The New York Times just a year ago.

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By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER

Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The former top leader of the far-right Proud Boys extremist group and other members were charged with seditious conspiracy for what federal prosecutors say was a coordinated attack on the U.S. Capitol to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.

The latest indictment against Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, the former Proud Boys chairman, and four others linked to the group comes as the U.S. House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot prepares to begin public hearings this week to lay out its findings.

The indictment Monday alleges that the Proud Boys conspired to forcibly oppose the lawful transfer of presidential power. Tarrio and the others — Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola — were previously charged with different conspiracy counts.

They are scheduled to stand trial in August in Washington, D.C.’s federal court.

The seditious conspiracy charges are among the most serious filed so far, but aren’t the first of their kind. Eleven members or associates of the anti-government Oath Keepers militia group, including its founder and leader Stewart Rhodes, were indicted in January on seditious conspiracy charges in a serious escalation in the largest investigation in the Justice Department’s history.

Three Oath Keepers have already pleaded guilty to the rarely used Civil War-era charge that calls for up to 20 years in prison. The indictment alleges that the Oath Keepers and their associates prepared in the weeks leading up to Jan. 6 as if they were going to war, discussing things like weapons and training.

Tarrio, the group’s top leader, wasn’t in Washington, D.C., when the riot erupted on Jan. 6, 2021, but authorities say he helped put into motion the violence that day.

Police arrested Tarrio in Washington two days before the riot and charged him with vandalizing a Black Lives Matter banner at a historic Black church during a protest in December 2020. Tarrio was released from jail on Jan. 14 after serving his five-month sentence for that case.

An attorney for Tarrio said his client “is going to have his day in court.”

“And we intend to vigorously represent him through that process,” said Nayib Hassan.

Defense attorney Carmen Hernendez, who represents Rehl, said her client is “as innocent of these charges as the ones that had already been pending against him.”

“Seditious conspiracy requires the use of force, and he never used any force nor thought about using any force,” Hernandez said.

More than three dozen people charged in the Capitol siege have been identified by federal authorities as leaders, members or associates of the Proud Boys, whose members describe it as a politically incorrect men’s club for “Western chauvinists.”

They have brawled with antifascist activists at rallies and protests. Vice Media co-founder Gavin McInnes, who founded the Proud Boys in 2016, sued the Southern Poverty Law Center for labeling it as a hate group.

The indictment alleges that the Proud Boys held meetings and communicated over encrypted messages to plan for the attack in the days leading up to Jan. 6. On the day of the riot, authorities say Proud Boys dismantled metal barricades set up to protect the Capitol and mobilized, directed and led members of the crowd into the building.

Prosecutors have said the Proud Boys arranged for members to communicate using specific frequencies on Baofeng radios. The Chinese-made devices can be programmed for use on hundreds of frequencies, making it difficult for outsiders to eavesdrop.

Shortly before the riot, authorities say Tarrio posted on social media that the group planned to turn out in “record numbers” on Jan. 6, but would be “incognito” instead of donning their traditional clothing colors of black and yellow.

Around the same time, an unnamed person sent Tarrio a document that laid out plans for occupying a few “crucial buildings” in Washington on Jan. 6, including House and Senate office buildings around the Capitol, the indictment says. The nine-page document was entitled “1776 Returns” and called for having as “many people as possible” to “show our politicians We the People are in charge,” according to the indictment.

Nordean, of Auburn, Washington, was a Proud Boys chapter president and a member of the group’s national “Elders Council.” Biggs, of Ormond Beach, Florida, is a self-described Proud Boys organizer. Rehl was president of the Proud Boys chapter in Philadelphia. Pezzola is a Proud Boy member from Rochester, New York.

A New York man pleaded guilty in December to storming the U.S. Capitol with fellow Proud Boys members. Matthew Greene was the first Proud Boys member to publicly plead guilty to conspiring with other members to stop Congress from certifying the Electoral College vote. Greene agreed to cooperate with authorities investigating the attack.

Another Proud Boy, Charles Donohoe, of Kernersville, North Carolina, pleaded guilty in April to conspiracy and assault charges and also agreed to cooperate in the Justice Department’s cases against other members of the extremist group.

In December, a federal judge refused to dismiss an earlier indictment charging alleged leaders of the Proud Boys with conspiring to block the certification of Biden’s electoral college win. U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly rejected defense attorneys’ arguments that the men were charged with conduct that is protected by the First Amendment right to free speech.

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By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Contributor

During two interviews on January 2, Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) outlined steps moving forward after months of investigation of the violent January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol by Donald Trump supporters.

The Chair of the special committee to investigate the January 6, 2021 attack said in a January 2nd interview that the violent insurrection “appeared to be a coordinated effort on the part of a number of people to undermine the election.”

Thompson also indicated that the Department of Defense may have interfered with assistance to the Capitol from the National Guard.

“There were significant inconsistencies in coordination, that the National Guard from the District of Columbia was slow to respond, not on its own, but it had to go to the Department of Defense. We have actually fixed that right now, where the mayor of the District of Columbia can access the Guard right now,” Thompson said.

Thompson is planning televised hearings of the committee’s work in January. Thompson also mentioned a task force within the committee that will investigate the financial support of Trump supporters who attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021. The committee is bi-partisan with two Republicans: Reps. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) and Liz Cheney (R-WY).

The attack on the legislative branch of the U.S. government happened on the same day that the election of President Joe Biden was to officially be certified as the victor of the 2020 presidential election by Congress. The certification process is typically a non-eventful procedure that involves officially receiving the certification papers of all the states during an hours-long ceremony and vote on the House floor.

There were 147 Republicans in the U.S. House who voted against the certification of Biden’s election even after the violent attack on the Capitol.

On January 6, 2021, former President Trump, who lost to President Joe Biden on November 3, 2020 by over 7,052,770 votes, had only 14 days left to remain in The White House before Biden’s inaugural. On the morning of January 6, 2021, Trump appeared at a gathering of his supporters and lied to them, as he had since November 2020 claiming the election was “stolen.” Trump’s lie that his election loss was the result of fraud has been advanced on Facebook by his supporters and in right-wing media non-stop.

““I think it is critically important, given everything we know about the lines that he was willing to cross — he crossed lines no American president has ever crossed before. You know, we entrust the survival of our republic into the hands of the chief executive, and when a president refuses to tell the mob to stop, when he refuses to defend any of the coordinate branches of government, he cannot be trusted,” Rep. Cheney said about Donald Trump on January 2.

Trump lost to Biden by double the amount of votes that he lost to Hillary Clinton in 2016. Clinton won the popular vote by 2,868,686 votes but lost the electoral college 304 to 227.

“All of us here today do not want to see our election victory stolen by emboldened radical-left Democrats, which is what they’re doing. And stolen by the fake news media,” Trump bellowed from a stage on the eclipse near The White House. “We will never give up, we will never concede. It doesn’t happen. You don’t concede when there’s theft involved,” Trump continued citing no evidence.

Several Republican election officials in states such as Georgia, Arizona and New Mexico certified Biden as the winner of the election without controversy.

Trump’s supporters violently attacked the Capitol shortly after Trump’s speech, over-running entrances, assaulting police officers and breaking glass doors as Vice President Michael Pence during the violent insurrection at the Capitol. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser called Governors in surrounding states for assistance from their National Guard.

Trump’s supporters set up a fake guillotine they said was for Pence on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol between the reflecting pool and a memorial of U.S. Grant. Trump’s supporters chanted “hang Mike Pence” in the Capitol during the insurrection.

“We have significant testimony that leads us to believe that the White House had been told to do something. We want to verify all of it,” Thompson said on CNN.

The next committee meeting is expected soon.

Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent journalist and the host of the podcast BURKEFILE. She is a political analyst who appears regularly on #RolandMartinUnfiltered. She may be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke

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By Andria Carter

Sesh Digital Correspondent

January 6 remains a day that we will remember forever. One year ago, when the year 2021 was barely in its infancy, our country suffered a significant dent to our democracy. The onslaught of rioters on the U.S. Capitol remains burned in our minds, in replay on various streaming platforms and helped deepen the political divide our country suffers from. 

On Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House will say a prayer and hold a minute of silence along with a prayer service on the Capitol steps. According to ABC News, the House will hold a discussion where lawmakers, historians and others will recount their time on January 6 and contemplate what’s next. 

In a letter to his colleagues, Senator Chuck Schumer described January 6, “One year ago this week, we experienced great sorrow; mere hours after the dawn of a new Congress and a new Majority, our beloved Capitol was attacked. It was attacked in a naked attempt to derail our Republic’s most sacred tradition: the peaceful transfer of power. Domestic violent extremists sought to inflict chaos and violence. Fueled by conspiracy and the ravings of vengeful former president, they sought destroy our Republic.”

“Our Democracy held – for now,” he added.

Over the past year and now,  various media outlets are keeping Americans abreast on what is happening with the investigation conducted by the U.S. House of Representatives January 6 Committee, and the FBI investigation. Weekly we hear of the arrests, guilty pleas or convictions of those who participated in the “Save American Rally” that turned into the January 6 riot. Many regret their participation, others are giving up what they know. The more the January 6 Committee and the FBI learn the closer we get to who planned the event. 

To date, the Special House Committee led by Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., has interviewed over 300 witnesses. Drips and drabs of information have been released by the committee. Although the group plans to move to a more public gathering of information by holding hearings. In various media interviews, Thompson said the Committee are not shrinking violets and are looking at all facts and circumstances that pulled together January 6.

Despite the several ongoing investigations, former president Donald Trump has not paid a legal or political price for his involvement of January 6. The House determined Trump incited the riot and impeached him for a second time., which the U.S. Senate did not convict him for a second time. As more is uncovered the Committee has not referred information over to the Department of Justice for criminal charges or prosecution. 

We do know that participants in the “Save America” rally and the U.S. Capitol riot included the actions and inactions of Trump allies, far right anti-government extremist groups such as the Oath Keepers, the Proud Boys, and Three Percenters. 

What Happened on January 6

On January 6, 2021, a joint session of the House and Senate just began to count the Electoral College votes to solidify the Presidential election in which now, President Joe Biden won. In response to the joint session pro-Trump supporters gathered in Washington, D.C. for a “Save America” rally to protest the counting of the Electoral ballots. Former president Trump had charged that the election had suffered from voter fraud and Biden had won it illegally. To this day, Trump continues to declare the election was stolen from him. Trump’s charges and arguments have been debunked in the courts system and by the national election and security officials stating the 2021 national elections were the most secured elections in its history. 

Prior to the start of the joint session of Congress, Trump was urging then Vice President Mike Pence to not count certain electoral ballots. He wanted Pence to reject Biden’s election and send the counts back to the states. Pence in response released a letter saying that his role in the process was merely ceremonial and would not do Trump’s bidding. 

As House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the joint session into order, Trump told rally participants to go to the U.S. Capitol. Trump in his speech urged his supporters to show Congress their pride and boldness.  While the supporters began marching, objections to the count were introduced and the joint session was suspended for debate to occur in both the House and Senate.

Around 1:30 p.m., rioters began protesting on the back steps of the U.S. Capitol. In fact, those rushing the stairs overwhelmed the Capitol Police. Soon after, America witnessed, via the news media as the rioters climbed that stairs and other parts of the part of the Capitol building breaking windows, doors and forcing their way into the building. 

Congressman not escorted from the House floor had to barricade themselves in council room, others in their offices listening as rioters raged past or pounded on their doors. Those in the House chambers watched as Capitol police protected them by barricading the doors, and when the windows were broken, shots were fired. One woman lost her life. 

Around the country, Trump supports also rallied at States capitols some also suffered damaged from protestors. 

According to news reports and Committee reports, Trump was urged to stop the riot. He did not. He later Tweeted urging people to remain peaceful. Two hours after the protest began, Trump ordered the National Guard to the U.S. Capitol. 

Trump later tweeted a video urging people to home.  In the video, he said, “We love you. You are special people. You’ve seen what happens. You seen how others are treated that are so bad and so evil. I know how you feel, but go home, and go home in peace.”

Trump never went on national television to denounce the rioters’ actions or to refute the claims that the election was stolen. 

The impact of January 6 continues to be fled in 2022. State legislators are approving stringent voters laws restricting people’s ability in free elections, almost guaranteeing Republican-led state governments. In response to the intense restrictions being introduced the U.S. Senate is expected to vote rights bills in the coming weeks after they change the filibuster rules that have prevented debate and votes on voting rights bills. 

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^{Image by David Mark from Pixabay}

From News Services

House Democrats formally introduced their resolution to impeach President Donald Trump on January 11, charging him with “incitement of insurrection” for his role in the previous week’s riots at the US Capitol.

The impeachment resolution the House is poised to vote on Jan.13 is the Democrats’ first step toward making Trump the first president in history to be impeached twice.

Democrats also tried to move a resolution Jan. 11 urging Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from power, but House Republicans blocked the request.

The single impeachment article, which was introduced when the House gaveled into a brief pro-forma session Monday, points to Trump’s repeated false claims that he won the election and his speech to the crowd on January 6 before pro-Trump rioters breached the Capitol. It also cited Trump’s call with the Georgia Republican secretary of state where the President urged him to “find” enough votes for Trump to win the state.

“In all this, President Trump gravely endangered the security of the United States and its institutions of Government,” the resolution says. “He threatened the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful transition 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.”

The resolution, which was introduced by Democrats David Cicilline of Rhode Island, Jamie Raskin of Maryland and Ted Lieu of California, also cited the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, noting that it “prohibits any person who has ‘engaged in insurrection or rebellion against’ the United States” from holding office.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told House Democrats on Sunday evening that the House would proceed with bringing an impeachment resolution to the floor this week unless Pence moves to invoke the 25th Amendment with a majority of the Cabinet to remove Trump from power.

Pelosi’s letter was the first time she explicitly said that the House would take up impeachment on the floor, though it was clear that House Democrats have rapidly coalesced around an impeachment resolution in the days following the riots at the Capitol where five people died, including a US Capitol Police officer. 

Multiple Republicans are considering supporting impeachment, sources say

The level of unity in the Democratic caucus is being driven by the visceral reaction to what happened on January 6, when lawmakers had to be evacuated from the House and Senate chambers with rioters banging on the doors outside as the insurrectionists tried to stop the counting of votes to affirm President-elect Joe Biden would become President on January 20.

Still, as Democrats race toward impeachment, the President-elect’s advisers have expressed concerns about an impeachment trial in the Senate hampering the opening days of Biden’s presidency, and Democrats are still debating how to handle the timing of the impeachment articles and a possible Senate trial.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said Monday that he expects the vote to impeach Trump to occur on Wednesday, and he wants the articles sent to the Senate without delay. Because Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said he won’t bring back the Senate from recess before January 19, that would push the trial into the beginning of the Biden administration.

“I expect that we’ll have Republican support,” Cicilline said. “I think it’s urgent that the president be removed immediately.”

Pelosi said she was calling on Pence to respond within 24 hours of the House passing Raskin’s 25th Amendment resolution. If that does not happen, Democrats will bring their impeachment resolution to the floor.

Pelosi said in an interview on CBS’ “60 Minutes” that she liked the idea of invoking the 25th Amendment “because it gets rid of him,” but explained, “one of the motivations people have for advocating for impeachment” is to prevent Trump from holding office again.

“There’s strong support in the Congress for impeaching the President a second time,” she said.

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