The House of Representatives is due to vote on Wednesday for the impeachment of Donald Trump, who will in doing so become the first president in US history to be the subject of this measure twice.
And the first to be inflicted so quickly, and on the very places where the acts with which he is accused took place.
Representatives did not consider it necessary to hear witnesses or experts explain the details of the
"serious crime" with
which the president is accused.
A week earlier, they were in the same sitting room as Trump supporters tried to break down the doors.
"We are debating this historic measure at a crime scene"
, said Jim McGovern, Democratic representative for Massachusetts, at the opening.
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The vote was announced in a particularly tense climate, as the United States fears further violence as the end of Donald Trump's term and the inauguration of Joe Biden on January 20 approaches.
The Capitol was transformed into an entrenched camp, with armed troops on duty around and inside the building and soldiers bivouacking in the corridors.
The parliamentarians themselves had to go through security gates.
The National Guard, deployed in the federal capital to provide security on Capitol Hill, had received authorization to be armed, an unusual arrangement.
In all, 20,000 troops are expected to be present in the city for the inauguration ceremony of Joe Biden.
The outgoing president on Wednesday called for calm.
A certain tension also reigned in the spans of the Chamber.
The Democrats, who urgently triggered this impeachment measure, strongly denounced the incitement to insurgency that Trump allegedly committed by sending his supporters to Capitol Hill during the official tally of the presidential election results.
But many Republicans have opposed a step they believe is hasty and unnecessary, taken as Trump's term ends in a week.
"He must go, he is an immediate danger to this nation we love,"
said Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic Speaker of the House, whose political opposition to Donald Trump is coupled with personal and mutual animosity.
Pelosi, who led the previous impeachment proceedings against Trump in the fall of 2019, saw his office swarmed by protesters who entered Capitol Hill.
"These domestic terrorists were incited and sent by the president"
, she denounced.
House Democrat Congressman James Clyburn warned of the existential threat Trump would pose to democracy and insisted on the need to
"remove and condemn him
.
"
"If these actions are not grounds for impeachment, one wonders what could be,"
said Steny Hoyer, representative for Maryland.
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While Trump's first impeachment in 2019 garnered no votes from Republican officials, a small but significant number of elected officials broke with their party to vote with the Democrats, claiming Trump violated his oath to protect and to defend American democracy.
Liz Cheney, representative for Wyoming and daughter of former Republican Vice President Dick Cheney, was the first to announce plans to vote for impeachment.
“On January 6, 2021, a violent mob attacked the United States Capitol to obstruct the democratic process and stop the counting of the presidential election votes.
This insurrection has caused injuries, deaths and destruction in the most sacred place of our Republic
, she said.
The President of the United States summoned this crowd.
(…) Everything that followed was his doing.
None of this would have happened without him.
The president could have intervened immediately and decisively to put an end to the violence.
He did not do it.
There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution. "
Reckoning
But most of the Republican elected officials refused to vote a measure which they consider hasty, and which risks to stir up anger and resentment in a country deeply divided.
"I did not appreciate the president's speech, but he told his supporters to go and demonstrate peacefully towards Congress,
" said Tom McClintock, Republican representative from California, who said he was opposed to an
"unconstitutional"
measure
.
He warned against resorting to the most serious sanction provided for by the Constitution, applied
"urgently, without hearings, a week before a new president takes office"
.
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Many have emphasized the partisan aspect of this measure taken by Democrats.
"They are trying to settle scores rather than reconcile
, said Tom Cole, Republican of Oklahoma,
which will continue to fuel the divisions rather than bridge them."
Some have taken up almost word for word the warnings of Donald Trump, who had warned the day before that a great anger was mounting in the country.
"You are using this as a weapon
," Louie Gohmert, an elected Republican from Texas and from the Tea Party movement, told Democrats.
What you are doing is very dangerous. ”
Mitch McConnell, a powerful leader of the Republican senators, announced that the Senate, which must vote or reject Trump's conviction, will not meet in special session as the Democrats demanded.
The next session of the Upper House is scheduled for January 19, the day before the end of Donald Trump's mandate and the assumption of office of his successor.