WASHINGTON: The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives would vote on the impeachment of outgoing President Donald Trump on Wednesday on charges of inciting his supporters to carry out a violent attack on the Capitol Hill last week.
Co-authored by Congressmen Jamie Raskin, David Cicilline and Ted Lieu, the article of impeachment -- co-sponsored by 211 House members -- was tabled on Monday.
During a conference call with his party colleagues on Monday, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said the impeachment vote will be held on Wednesday.
The article of impeachment charges Trump with a count of "incitement of insurrection" for his actions on January 6, when he delivered a speech inciting his supporters to lay siege to the Capitol, an action that temporarily halted the counting of Electoral College votes and resulted in the deaths of five individuals, including an officer of the US Capitol Police.
The Democrats have enough votes to impeach the president in the House, which requires a simple majority.
But the Senate, where the Republicans have a razor-thin 51-50 majority -- requires votes of two-third of the members to remove the president out of the office.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said the vote on impeachment in the upper chambers of the US Congress can not happen before the Inauguration Day on January 20.
Later on Monday, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar also introduced two articles of impeachment against Trump.
The first article cites Trump's abuse of power for attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia.
The second article addresses the incitement of violence for orchestrating an attempted coup against our country.
"I just introduced my impeachment resolution. The full House will now vote on a measure calling on Vice President (Mike) Pence and the cabinet to remove President Donald Trump under the 25th amendment. If Pence does not act, the House will move to impeach this week," Omar said.
Republican Senator Steve Daines rejected calls for impeachment.
"Now is the time to stand united, move forward together and have a peaceful transition of power. Pushing partisan driven articles of impeachment through Congress days before the inauguration will further divide our country," he said.
Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz said impeachment is unnecessary, divisive, and it's only being done because Democrats want to keep the focus on Trump so they can hold together their fragile coalition.
"This week, the House will vote to impeach Donald Trump for inciting an insurrection against the seat of our democracy," said Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur.
"Liberty and the rule of law, though always fragile, are bedrock tenets of our democratic republic. No President, nay, no American, ought to be able to incite violence against our democracy without repercussion. The American people demand accountability to prevent such horrific events from ever happening again," she said.
Meanwhile, President-elect Joe Biden has urged the US Congressional leadership on Monday to bifurcate the process to impeach outgoing President Donald Trump and confirmation of his nominees.
Biden told reporters at a news conference on Monday that his priority was to get first and foremost a stimulus bill passed and secondly to begin to rebuild the economy.
He plans to make a detailed announcement in this regard on Thursday.
"I had a discussion today with some folks in the House (and) in the Senate," Biden said.
"Can we go a half day on dealing with the impeachment and half a day getting my people nominated and confirmed in the Senate, as well as moving on the package?" "So that is my hope and expectation," he said.
The president-elect added that he had not received an answer from the lawmakers yet.
Responding to a question, Biden said he was not afraid of holding inauguration outside.
"We have been getting briefed, but I think it's critically important that there be a real serious focus on holding those folks who engaged in sedition and threatened peoples' lives, defaced public property, caused great damage that they be held accountable, Biden said.
"And I think that is a view that is held by the vast majority of Democrats and Republicans in the Congress."
On the other hand, Trump and Vice President Mike Pence have spoken for the first time since last week's Capitol insurrection, during which Pence was forced to flee the Senate chamber and retreat to a secure location.
A senior administration official says the two met on Monday evening in the Oval Office.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private meeting, said the two had a "good conversation", discussing the week ahead and "reflecting" on the administrations accomplishments over the last four years.
The official said that during the meeting, both men agreed that "those who broke the law and stormed the Capitol last week do not represent the America first movement backed by 75 million Americans" and pledged to continue working on behalf of the country for the remainder of their term.
The person did not mention Trump's lingering anger over Pence's refusal to go along with his unconstitutional scheme to try to overturn the results of the November election that he lost.
Nor did the person mention whether Pence confronted Trump for using him as a scapegoat and tweeting that he lacked courage while the siege was underway.