Second Impeachment of Donald Trump: House Impeaches for Incitement of Insurrection; Senate Acquits Despite Bipartisan Majority Voting to Convict

Details

On January 13, 2021, the House of Representatives voted 232-197 to impeach President Donald Trump on a single article charging him with "incitement of insurrection" for his role in the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. This was Trump's second impeachment—the first president in American history to be impeached twice. Ten Republicans joined all Democrats in voting to impeach, making it the most bipartisan presidential impeachment in U.S. history. The Senate trial concluded on February 13, 2021, with a 57-43 vote to convict—a majority, but 10 votes short of the two-thirds (67 votes) required for conviction. Seven Republicans joined all Democrats in voting to convict, the largest bipartisan vote for an impeachment conviction of a president.

The Article of Impeachment

The single article of impeachment charged Trump with "incitement of insurrection" and cited both his January 6 speech and his broader efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. Representatives David Cicilline (D-RI), Jamie Raskin (D-MD), and Ted Lieu (D-CA) introduced the article on January 11, 2021.

According to the article, Trump "repeatedly issued false statements asserting that the presidential election results were fraudulent and should not be accepted by the American people or certified by state or federal officials." It further stated that at his January 6 rally, Trump "willfully made statements that, in context, encouraged—and foreseeably resulted in—lawless action at the Capitol," including telling supporters "if you don't fight like hell you're not going to have a country anymore."

The article specifically referenced Trump's January 2, 2021, phone call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, during which he pressured Raffensperger to "find" enough votes to overturn Biden's victory in the state. It concluded that Trump "gravely endangered the security of the United States and its institutions of Government," "threatened the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful transition of power, and imperiled a coequal branch of Government."

The article invoked both the constitutional standard of "high Crimes and Misdemeanors" and Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which prohibits any person who has "engaged in insurrection or rebellion against" the United States from holding federal office.

House Vote

The House voted 232-197 to impeach Trump on January 13, 2021—exactly one week after the Capitol attack and seven days before Joe Biden's inauguration. All 222 Democrats voted in favor, joined by ten Republicans:

• Liz Cheney (Wyoming) — House Republican Conference Chair (third-ranking House Republican)
• Adam Kinzinger (Illinois)
• John Katko (New York)
• Fred Upton (Michigan)
• Jaime Herrera Beutler (Washington)
• Dan Newhouse (Washington)
• Peter Meijer (Michigan)
• Anthony Gonzalez (Ohio)
• Tom Rice (South Carolina)
• David Valadao (California)

Representative Liz Cheney, who represented Wyoming—a state Trump won by 43 points—issued a statement calling Trump's conduct "the greatest betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution." She stated: "The President of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack. Everything that followed was his doing. None of this would have happened without the President. The President could have immediately and forcefully intervened to stop the violence. He did not."

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy acknowledged on the House floor that Trump "bears responsibility for Wednesday's attack on the Capitol," but argued against impeachment, saying it would "further fan the flames of partisan division."

Speaker Nancy Pelosi signed the article of impeachment that evening, calling Trump "a clear and present danger to our country."

This marked a stark contrast with Trump's first impeachment in December 2019, when not a single House Republican voted for impeachment.

Senate Trial

The Senate impeachment trial began on February 9, 2021—the first impeachment trial of a former president in American history. Because Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell declined to reconvene the Senate before President-elect Biden's inauguration, the trial could not begin until after Trump had left office.

Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD) served as lead impeachment manager, joined by Representatives David Cicilline, Ted Lieu, Diana DeGette, Joaquin Castro, Eric Swalwell, Joe Neguse, Madeleine Dean, and Stacey Plaskett.

On the trial's first day, the Senate voted 56-44 that it was constitutionally permissible to try a former president—rejecting Trump's defense team's primary argument that the trial was unconstitutional. Five Republicans (Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Mitt Romney, Ben Sasse, and Pat Toomey) joined all Democrats in that vote.

The House managers argued that there was no "January exception" to impeachment and that acquitting Trump would leave the country "virtually defenseless against a president's treachery in his final days." They cited an 1876 precedent in which the Senate tried former Secretary of War William Belknap after his resignation.

Trump's defense team argued the trial was unconstitutional because Trump had already left office, and that his speech was protected political rhetoric under the First Amendment.

Senate Vote and Acquittal

The trial lasted five days. On February 13, 2021, the Senate voted 57-43 to convict Trump of inciting insurrection. While this represented a majority of senators and the most bipartisan conviction vote in any presidential impeachment trial, it fell 10 votes short of the 67 required for conviction.

Seven Republicans voted to convict:

• Richard Burr (North Carolina) — subsequently censured by North Carolina GOP
• Bill Cassidy (Louisiana) — subsequently censured by Louisiana GOP
• Susan Collins (Maine)
• Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) — subsequently censured by Alaska GOP
• Mitt Romney (Utah) — also voted to convict in first impeachment trial
• Ben Sasse (Nebraska)
• Pat Toomey (Pennsylvania)

Senator Romney stated: "President Trump incited the insurrection against Congress by using the power of his office to summon his supporters to Washington on January 6th and urging them to march on the Capitol during the counting of electoral votes."

According to a Just Security analysis of public statements from the 43 Republican senators who voted to acquit, over half cited the jurisdictional argument as their primary justification. Only 16 cited merit-based reasons for their votes.

Why No Vote on Disqualification

Under Senate rules, conviction requires a two-thirds supermajority, but a separate vote to disqualify a convicted individual from ever holding federal office again requires only a simple majority. Had Trump been convicted, the 57-43 majority that voted for conviction would have been sufficient to bar him from future office.

However, the disqualification vote can only occur after conviction. Because the Senate failed to reach the two-thirds threshold needed to convict, Trump was acquitted, and the question of disqualification was never reached. The 57 senators who voted to convict—a clear majority—were thus unable to prevent Trump from seeking office again.

McConnell's Post-Acquittal Speech

Minutes after voting to acquit, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell delivered a blistering speech condemning Trump while explaining his constitutional rationale for acquittal:

"There is no question, none, that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day. The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their President. And their having that belief was a foreseeable consequence of the growing crescendo of false statements, conspiracy theories, and reckless hyperbole which the defeated President kept shouting into the largest megaphone on planet Earth."

McConnell described the violence: "Fellow Americans beat and bloodied our own police. They stormed the Senate floor. They tried to hunt down the Speaker of the House. They built a gallows and chanted about murdering the Vice President. They did this because they had been fed wild falsehoods by the most powerful man on Earth—because he was angry he'd lost an election."

He called Trump's actions "a disgraceful dereliction of duty." However, McConnell explained his vote to acquit on constitutional grounds, arguing that the Senate lacked jurisdiction to convict a former president: "If President Trump were still in office, I would have carefully considered whether the House managers proved their specific charge."

Speaker Pelosi responded by calling McConnell's remarks "pathetic," noting that as Senate Majority Leader, McConnell had refused to reconvene the Senate before January 19 to hold the trial while Trump was still in office.

Public Opinion

Polling showed a majority of Americans supported conviction:

• A Monmouth University poll (January 25, 2021) found 52% favored conviction and 57% supported barring Trump from future federal office
• An ABC News/Ipsos poll (February 7, 2021) found 56% supported conviction and disqualification from future office
• A CBS News/YouGov poll (February 8, 2021) found 56% supported conviction
• A Gallup poll (February 2021) found 52% wanted their senators to vote to convict

However, support was heavily polarized by party. According to the ABC News/Ipsos poll conducted after the trial, 88% of Democrats believed Trump should have been convicted, compared to only 14% of Republicans. Additionally, 77% of Americans said most senators voted based on partisan politics rather than the evidence presented.

Political Consequences for Republicans Who Voted to Impeach or Convict

By the 2022 midterm elections, the ten House Republicans who voted for impeachment faced significant political consequences:

• Four lost their primaries to Trump-backed challengers (Cheney, Rice, Herrera Beutler, Meijer)
• Four did not seek reelection (Kinzinger, Gonzalez, Upton, Katko)
• Two survived their primaries and were reelected (Newhouse, Valadao)

According to The Hill, Trump endorsed primary challengers against most of these members.

Liz Cheney was removed from her position as House Republican Conference Chair in May 2021 for her continued criticism of Trump's election lies. She subsequently served as vice chair of the House Select Committee investigating January 6.

The North Carolina and Louisiana Republican parties censured Senators Burr and Cassidy respectively for their votes to convict, and Alaska Republicans censured Senator Murkowski.

Historical Significance

The second impeachment of Donald Trump established several historical firsts:

• First president impeached twice
• First impeachment trial of a former president
• Most bipartisan House impeachment vote (10 members of the president's party)
• Most bipartisan Senate conviction vote for a president (7 members of the president's party)
• Shortest gap between House impeachment and Senate trial (27 days)

The 57-43 Senate vote marked the largest number of senators to ever vote to convict a president from their own party. In contrast, during Trump's first impeachment trial in February 2020, only one senator (Romney) voted to convict on one article.

Trump's Response

Trump released a statement welcoming his acquittal and called the trial "yet another phase of the greatest witch hunt in the history of our Country." He stated that his movement "has only just begun."