WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump is on the verge of becoming the first president to be impeached twice, as lawmakers move quickly to punish him over last week's deadly US Capitol attack.
Trump's fiery speech at a rally just before the Jan. 6 riot is at the center of the impeachment charge against him, even as the falsehoods he spread for months about election fraud are still being championed by some Republicans.
A Capitol police officer died from injuries suffered in the riot, and police shot and killed a woman during the siege.
Three other people died in what authorities said were medical emergencies.
What to watch as the Democratic-controlled House moves to impeach Trump for the second time in 13 months now with just days left in the defeated president's term.
BUT FIRST, A VOTE ON THE 25TH AMENDMENT
Before proceeding with impeachment, the House pressed Vice President Mike Pence and the Cabinet to remove Trump more quickly and surely, warning that he is a threat to democracy in the few remaining days of his presidency.
The House approved a resolution late Tuesday calling on Pence and the Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment to the Constitution to declare the president unable to serve.
Pence, who was among those forced to take shelter inside the Capitol complex during the attack, said before the vote that he would take no such action, leaving lawmakers with impeachment as their only option to remove Trump from office before Jan.20, when President-elect Joe Biden is set to be sworn in as president.
THE DEMOCRATIC CASE FOR IMPEACHMENT
Trump faces a single charge incitement of insurrection after the deadly Capitol riot in an impeachment resolution that the House will begin debating Wednesday.
It's a stunning end for Trump's presidency as Democrats and a growing number of Republicans declare he is unfit for office and could do more damage after inciting a mob that ransacked the Capitol.
President Trump gravely endangered the security of the United States and its institutions of Government, reads part of the four-page impeachment bill.
He will remain a threat to national security, democracy and the Constitution if allowed to remain in office.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said impeachment is needed despite the limited number of days left in Trump's term.
The president's threat to America is urgent, and so too will be our action, she said.
Trump's actions were personal for Pelosi and many other lawmakers.
She was among those forced to huddle in a bunker during the Capitol riots, and armed rioters menaced staffers with taunts of Where's Nancy?
HOW MANY REPUBLICANS WILL SUPPORT?
Unlike the last time Trump was impeached, when no House Republicans supported charges against Trump over a call he made to Ukraine's new president, the current impeachment effort has drawn support from some Republicans.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California and his deputy, Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise, are again expected to oppose impeachment, but Wyoming Rep.Liz Cheney, the No.3 House Republican, said Tuesday she will support it.
Cheney, whose father, Dick Cheney, served as vice president under George W. Bush, has been more critical of Trump than other GOP leaders.
She said in a statement Tuesday that Trump summoned the mob that attacked the Capitol, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack.
She added: Everything that followed was his doing and noted that Trump could have immediately intervened to stop his supporters from rioting but did not.
Reps John Katko, R-N.Y., and Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., also said they would back impeachment, and some other Republicans seem likely to follow.
McCarthy, one of Trump's closest allies in Congress, echoed Trump in declaring that impeachment at this time would have the opposite effect of bringing our country together.
WILL HOUSE CENSURE TRUMP?
In a move short of impeachment, McCarthy and other Republicans have floated the idea of a House censure of Trump.
Although it was not clear how much support the proposal has, McCarthy said censure or some other mechanism such as a bipartisan commission to investigate the attack would "ensure that the events of January 6 are rightfully denounced and prevented from occurring in the future.
'' Democrats, with the votes to impeach in hand, aren't buying it.
HOW WILL TRUMP RESPOND?
So far, Trump has taken no responsibility for his part in fomenting the violent insurrection, despite his comments encouraging supporters to march on the Capitol and praising them while they were still carrying out the assault.
People thought that what I said was totally appropriate, he said Tuesday. In the days leading up to the Jan. 6 certification vote, Trump encouraged his supporters to descend on Washington, D. C., promising a wild rally in support of his baseless claims of election fraud, despite his own administration's findings to the contrary.
Speaking for more than an hour to a crowd assembled near the White House, Trump encouraged supporters to fight like hell and suggested they march down to the Capitol to encourage GOP lawmakers to "step up and overturn the will of voters to grant him another term in office.
He also said he would join them in marching on the Capitol, although he returned to the White House immediately after the speech and watched the riot on TV.
One significant difference from Trump's first impeachment: He no longer has a Twitter feed to respond in real time.