U.S. House of Representatives to vote Wednesday to impeach Trump

The U.S. House of Representatives will vote on Wednesday on the accusation against outgoing President Donald Trump of "inciting an insurrection" that led to the assault on the Capitol last week, which could trigger the second impeachment against the president a week before his administration ends.

The "number two" in the Democratic majority in the House of Representatives, Steny Hoyer, announced in a phone call with the rest of the congressmen that the House will meet on Wednesday at 9:00 (14:00 GMT) to consider the political charge presented against Trump. 

The Democrats already have the necessary votes to approve that charge against Trump during Wednesday's vote on the floor, said Monday one of the congressmen who drafted the resolution, Democrat David Cicilline. "We already have the votes to impeach Trump," Cicilline wrote on Twitter.

A simple majority of 218 votes is needed to pass the impeach against Trump - or even less, if there are absences on the floor - and Democrats control 222 seats in the House of Representatives. Once that charge passes, the Senate will be required by law to impeach Trump, but the Upper House doesn't plan to resume until January 19, the day before President-elect Joe Biden takes office. 

That means the impeachment cannot result in the removal of Trump, who will have left the White House by the time the process begins, but the Democrats are confident of another consequence that would affect him: his disqualification from future political office.

The resolution introduced by the Democrats mentions that goal, but to achieve it, the Senate would first have to achieve the two-thirds majority needed to convict Trump of the charge of "inciting insurrection.

That goal will not be easy, given that the Senate is divided into 50 Democratic and 50 Republican seats, but the progressive caucus hopes that the idea of politically disqualifying Trump will help convince some Republicans in the Senate that they are considering running for the 2024 presidential election.

Only if the Senate votes to convict Trump can another vote be scheduled to decide whether to disqualify him politically, something that would require only a simple majority, according to legal experts.

The resolution's language for an impeachment indicates that, by encouraging insurrection from his supporters, Trump "severely endangered the security of the United States and its institutions of government. "He threatened the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful transition of power, and endangered one branch of government. He therefore betrayed his trust as President, with consequent manifest harm to the people of the United States," he adds. 

The January 6 assault on the Capitol occurred while Congress was meeting to ratify Biden's victory, and resulted in five deaths, including a police officer, while another officer who was present committed suicide three days later.

U.S. President-elect Joe Biden, a Democrat, said Monday that he is not afraid to be sworn in on the 20th outside the Capitol, as is tradition, after the violent assault on the Legislative building by Donald Trump supporters and threats from radicals on the Internet.

"I am not afraid to take the oath outdoors," Biden said today during a public appearance in which he received the second dose of Pfizer's SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus vaccine.

Biden reiterated that Trump "should not be in power," but did not comment on the call by Democrats in Congress who have asked Vice President Mike Pence and the Executive Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment to disqualify or begin a second "impeachment" process on Wednesday. The president-elect also said he expects those who engaged in "seditious" behavior in the violent takeover of the Capitol to pay for what they did.

Biden will assume the presidency on Wednesday of next week in a ceremony traditionally held on the Capitol steps, surrounded by the cream of American power.

Washington will be reinforced with more than 10,000 members of the National Guard to ensure security, while the city's mayor, Muriel Bowser, has asked the public not to attend the celebration or focus on the National Mall esplanade for fear of further confrontations.

The assault on the Capitol took place last Wednesday as lawmakers proceeded to certify Biden's election victory. In an intervention before his supporters gathered in front of the White House, Trump urged them to march to the legislature and repeated his unfounded accusations that he was a victim of electoral fraud.

Biden said it is an outrage that between 3,000 and 4,000 people die every day in the United States and assured that on Thursday he will present a plan to accelerate the distribution and administration of the vaccines against COVID-19, which are not being distributed with the expected speed.

The president-elect received his two doses at a hospital near his residence in the state of Delaware in an effort to encourage those undecided about the safety of the vaccine.

The United States now exceeds 375,000 deaths from the pandemic and 22.5 million cases of the pathogen, which continues to advance without remission across much of the country.