On Wednesday afternoon, the House voted to impeach the president for “incitement of insurrection,” making him the first president to ever be impeached twice. Rep. Cheri Bustos (D., Ill.) says impeaching President Trump for inciting the deadly riot at the Capitol was a matter of “preserving our democracy.”
“This is about making sure that what happened here in the nation's Capitol never happens again,” said Bustos in an interview with Yahoo Finance Live.
Democratic lawmakers say they first tried to push Trump to resign and then passed a resolution calling on Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment — but when those options failed, they had no choice but to impeach. Bustos called Pence’s decision not to invoke the 25th amendment “baffling.”
The rioters “wanted to take over our democracy. They wanted to kill people like me,” said Bustos. “They wanted to kill Nancy Pelosi. They wanted to kill Vice President Pence. These are people who are violent and crazed — and Donald Trump stirred them up, told them that he wanted to walk with them over to the Capitol.”
The Senate trial is expected to happen after Trump leaves office. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a statement after the impeachment vote there “is simply no chance that a fair or serious trial could conclude before President-elect Biden is sworn in next week.”
While some lawmakers have expressed concerns a Senate trial could slow down President-elect Biden’s agenda and delay confirmation of his nominees, Bustos said it still had to be done.
“It’s not like members of Congress can't do two things at once. We do it every day. We introduce multiple pieces of legislation every single day. This is about doing the right thing. This is not about politics,” said Bustos.
Bustos is also calling for a commission to investigate what led to the attack and find out who else might bear responsibility.
“If there were co-conspirators that are walking the halls of Congress or co-conspirators in the White House, then we need to know the truth,” said Bustos. “We need to hold every last one of them accountable.”
There are already growing calls to punish members of Congress, including Rep. Mo Brooks, Sen. Ted Cruz and Sen. Josh Hawley. Democrats have vowed to investigate the violence at the Capitol as they take over both chambers of Congress.
Jessica Smith is chief political correspondent for Yahoo Finance, based in Washington, D.C. Follow her on Twitter at @JessicaASmith8.
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