Just a few hours later the second impeachment of President Trump, his replacement, Joe Biden, said after the vote that he hoped that the Senate would be able to juggle its position in the process with its other pressing responsibilities.
The President-elect wrote on Twitter that, “Today, in a bipartisan vote, the House voted to impeach and hold President Trump accountable. Now, the process continues to the Senate—and I hope they’ll deal with their Constitutional responsibilities on impeachment while also working on the other urgent business of this nation,”
The U.S. House of Representatives impeached Trump, with a handful of Republicans joining Democrats to blame the outgoing commander-in-chief for sparking the siege at the U.S. Capitol last week.
Shortly after 4:20 p.m., the measure hit 217 “yea” votes To make Trump the first president who has twice been impeached.
As House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) declared around 4:35 p.m., the final vote was 232-197, with 10 Republicans crossing party lines and four Republicans not voting.
The step set the stage for a Senate trial that Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) spokesman said would not commence before the inauguration of Biden on Wednesday.
House Whip Jim Clyburn (D-SC) warned Democrats in an interview earlier this month to hold off on sending the article to the Senate to allow Biden space to build his legislative agenda.
Clyburn told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union,” referring to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, “I have concerns, and so does Speaker Pelosi” (D-Calif.).
He also said, “Let’s give President-elect Biden the 100 days he needs to get his agenda off and running, and maybe we will send the articles sometime after that.”
