2nd Trump Impeachment: MA Delegation Votes In Favor

U.S. representatives from Massachusetts voted in favor of impeaching President Donald Trump on a charge that he incited the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol last week. The House voted 232-197 in favor, making Trump the first president in U.S. history to be impeached twice.

The historic House vote took place a week after a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in a siege that resulted in five deaths — including the beating death of a Capitol Police officer, multiple arrests and a sprawling FBI investigation. The impeachment comes a week before President-elect Joe Biden is to be inaugurated in a city on high alert amid ongoing threats of violence.

"If this is not an impeachable offense, I don't know what the hell is," House Rules Committee Chairman Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts said. "This president is not fit to remain in office."

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It's not yet clear when the matter will move to the U.S. Senate.

Here’s how the Massachusetts delegation voted on the impeachment:

• Richard Neal: Yes
• Jim McGovern: Yes
• Lori Trahan: Yes
• Jake Auchincloss : Yes
• Katherine Clark: Yes
• Seth Moulton: Yes
• Ayanna Pressley: Yes
• Stephen Lynch: Yes
• William Keating: Yes

What's Next: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky reportedly may allow the Senate to vote to convict Trump, an extraordinary turn by the Republican leader who has defended and protected Trump during the four years of his tumultuous presidency.

If an impeachment trial is allowed in the Senate, it will be after Biden is inaugurated, McConnell said Wednesday. McConnell has reportedly said he believes Trump committed impeachable offenses, and that moving forward with a vote would make it easier for Republicans to purge Trumpism from their party.

"While the press has been full of speculation, I have not made a final decision on how I will vote and I intend to listen to the legal arguments when they are presented to the Senate," McConnell said.

Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, the third-ranking member of the House Republican leadership, is among more than two dozen Republicans who signaled they would break from their party and vote to impeach Trump.

"There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution," she said in a statement Tuesday.

Trial In The Senate: Two-thirds of the chamber would have to vote to convict Trump. The Senate exonerated Trump last year on charges of abuse of power and contempt of Congress after special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, but the charge against Trump this time is more clear-cut.

Under the Constitution, the Senate could prevent him from holding federal office again and strip him of other perks afforded to former presidents.

As lawmakers debated the need for and grave potential consequence of impeaching Trump for a second time, the FBI warned of armed protests in the days ahead of Biden’s inauguration. Statehouses in all 50 states have been targeted for protests. The FBI's Boston Division and Massachusetts State Police said there are no specific threats to the state.

The agency is also monitoring chatter on an encrypted messaging platform about plans by Trump extremists to form perimeters around the Capitol, the White House and the Supreme Court building as Biden takes the oath of office.

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