House votes to impeach Trump again

The House of Representatives on Wednesday voted 232-197 to make Donald Trump the first U.S. president ever to be impeached twice, formally charging him with inciting an insurrection just a week after a violent mob of his supporters stormed the Capitol.

This report produced by Chris Dignam.

HOUSE SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI: "The resolution is adopted.

Without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid upon the table." For the first time in U.S. history, the House of Representatives voted to impeach the president for a second time on Wednesday, after an emotional debate in the very chamber where some of the same lawmakers just one week ago were crouching under chairs and wearing gas masks, as rioters rampaged through the Capitol.

On the House floor, each party argued over the merits of impeaching President Donald Trump with only days left in his one term in office.

Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, made clear the president needed to be held responsible for his role in the deadly assault on democracy no matter the timing.

PELOSI: "We know that the president of the United States incited this insurrection, this armed rebellion against our common country.

He must go.

He is a clear and present danger to the nation that we all love." But House Republicans largely stuck by Trump, including the chamber's top Republican Kevin McCarthy, who argued impeachment would work against uniting the country.

MCCARTHY: "A vote to impeach would further divide this nation." Some of the president's most reliable allies, including Florida Republican Matt Gaetz, accused Democrats of inciting violence, saying they played a role in Black Lives Matters protests last summer.

GAETZ: "Some have cited the metaphor that Trump lit the flame.

Well, they lit actual flames, actual fires!" Democratic congresswoman Maxine Waters accused Trump of wanting civil war.

WATERS: "...the worst president in the history of the United States." And Democrat Hakeem Jeffries, an impeachment manager from Trump's first Senate trial, said the second move to impeach him was predictable.

JEFFRIES: "Donald Trump is a living, breathing impeachable offense." In the end House Democrats were joined by 10 Republican members to pass a single article of impeachment... REPUBLICAN DAN NEWHOUSE: "I will vote 'yes.'" ... a formal charge accusing Trump of "incitement of insurrection," after urging thousands of his supporters to march on the Capitol and fight and following months of denying the election result and trying to overturn it.

Wednesday's House session was conducted under extraordinary security inside and outside the Capitol, including armed National Guard personnel, who slept on the marble floors of Congress ahead of the vote.

In the Senate, Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell rejected Democratic calls for an immediate impeachment trial, saying there was no time to conclude a trial before Trump leaves office.

McConnell, who the New York Times reported to be pleased that the Democrats moved ahead with impeachment, said he had not made a final decision on how he will vote at Trump's trial.