Casting Impeachment Vote, Madeleine Dean Condemns Trump 'Plague'

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, PA — Describing the sound of the pounding of rioters on the doors of House chambers last week, Congresswoman Madeleine Dean exhorted her colleagues to remove President Donald Trump from office.

Dean was one of 232 — including every House Democrat and 10 Republicans — who voted to impeach Trump, as the measure passed. It will now head to the Senate. A total of 197 opposed the vote.

Trump is first president to ever be impeached twice.

"This hateful rhetoric is another deadly virus," Dean said on the House floor. "It is time to remove it from its host...Removing Donald Trump is the beginning of restoring decency and democracy. What happened last week will not be forgotten and what we do this week will long be remembered."

Dean was one of nine members of Congress appointed as a manager of Trump's impeachment proceedings by Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

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.

RELATED: 'Armed Marches' Threatened In PA Before Inauguration

It comes as the threat of more violence looms, with "armed marches on all state capitols" organized online, and putting Pennsylvania State Police on alert.

The Pennsylvania delegation voted along party lines with all Republicans voting against the measure, and all Democrats supporting it.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has said that he will not allow the Senate to immediately vote on convicting Trump — which would have been an extraordinary turn by a 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, but said Wednesday he intends to “listen to the legal arguments when they are presented to 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.