2nd Trump Impeachment: How Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. Voted

WASHINGTON, DC — U.S. Representative Bill Pascrell, Jr. voted to impeach President Donald Trump on a charge that he incited the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol last week. The House voted 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.

Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr., long a critic of the president, has been active of Twitter since the insurrection last week.

"Today we are voting to impeach donald trump for inciting a violent fascist mob to ransack the Capitol and try to end American democracy," he said Wednesday.

The congressman has also been live-tweeting during the impeachment hearing. Here are a few moments he's shared:

Pascrell joined his fellow New Jersey Democrats in voting in favor of impeachment.

He issued this statement shortly after doing so:

"Donald Trump is dangerous. He is the greatest internal threat ever to American democracy. Trump sowed insurrection with the intention of overthrowing our democracy and he came too close to succeeding. Trump engaged in treason. I warned in advance of Trump’s first impeachment that ‘The outrages of this administration have not abated, but instead accelerated by a failure to constrain them.’ The world and our country has seen the worst imaginable consequence of failing to constrain Trump. The blood of the dead are on his hands. If his actions are not impeachable, then I fear for the future of our republic. Impeachment, removal, and disqualification of this man is an important and profound action we must take. But it is not enough and when he is out of office, he must be prosecuted for the myriad of crimes he has committed."

Pascrell also issued a statement regarding his Republican colleagues, some of which he's claimed are unfit to hold office.

"What the world witnessed on January 6 was not spontaneous but a product of too many Republicans lying to the nation for months about the election and spouting Big Lies about our government for decades. They built this Frankenstein which now threatens our democracy. History will condemn their years-long failure to stop Trump’s atrocities, and so too can we today pronounce judgement on their cowardice," he said.

"Congressional Republicans who defend Trump’s actions have betrayed the Constitution. Had these Republicans been around in 1776 or 1861 or 1941, this nation may not have made it. In the coming days we must decide which of them are unfit to hold office. If we fail to hold Trump and his enablers accountable, America will lurch inexorably down the path of lawlessness and fascism," he added.

What's Next: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky will not agree to reconvene the Senate before Jan. 19, blocking an impeachment trial until then.

• 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.

• 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.

READ MORE: State, Local Police Brace For Possible Violence At NJ Capitol

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.

In Trenton, Mayor W. Reed Gusciora said on Wednesday that his police department is working with the State Police, the Mercer County Sheriff's Department and the Mercer County Prosecutor's Office "as part of a coordinated plan to ensure our safety if any protesters stray beyond the First Amendment right to peaceful protest."

In a message to the community, Gusciora said he was hopeful that the violence seen in Washington DC on Jan. 6 isn't repeated this weekend.

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