Storm on US Capitol

Impeachment: How Trump can be removed from office without office – politics

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US President Donald Trump is the first President in US history to be indicted twice by the House of Representatives. But how does such a procedure work? What must be taken into account this time, shortly after the change of government? And how do the Republicans behave? Answers to the most important questions:

How does the impeachment procedure, which was passed by Congress on January 13th, work?

Impeachment proceedings are vaguely reminiscent of legal proceedings. The House of Representatives acts as the indictment and the Senate acts as the court.

Only the House of Representatives can set it in motion. It has the sole right to bring charges against an incumbent president. All that is needed is a resolution that must be passed by an absolute majority of the MPs. This must include the charges and a reason. The President is formally charged with the decision.

In a second step, the Senate must then check whether the indictment is upheld. So, on the one hand, whether things happened as described in the indictment. And secondly, whether these actions are sufficient to remove the president from office. The lawsuit is represented in the Senate by a delegation from the House of Representatives. His lawyers speak for the president.

What role do the senators play?

Each of the 100 senators is a judge in the trial. The current presiding judge of the Supreme Court, in this case John Roberts, will preside over an impeachment case. He leads the procedure, but has no decision-making power. If in the end two-thirds of the senators approve, Trump is convicted and removed from office.

There is one more special feature: the senators have no right to speak in the proceedings. However, you can submit your questions to any witnesses in writing to the presiding judge. Roberts then has to read it out.

Why has Trump been charged?

For “inciting an uprising”. On January 6, in a seditious speech to tens of thousands of supporters in front of the White House, he urged his fans to march to the Capitol. In the run-up to his rally, Trump had advertised the event on Twitter by saying that it would be “wild”. All of this led to the storming of the Capitol on the same day, say the Democrats and some Republicans as well.

Trump also urged electoral supervisors in Georgia to redeclare the election result in Biden’s favor as a victory for Trump. In a recorded phone call, for example, he asked the responsible Home Secretary, Brad Raffensperger, to “find” 11,779 votes for him that would make him a winner. This could be considered an abuse of office and is listed in the indictment.

How long does an impeachment procedure take?

It can be very different. So far, the proceedings have taken weeks to months. In 2019, for example, it took almost three months from the announcement that the process would start in the House of Representatives to the impeachment decision on December 18. This time it was only a few days.

When does the Senate take over the proceedings?

This Monday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will officially notify the Senate of the January 13th impeachment resolution. The rules say the Senate must then initiate the process immediately. The senators should be sworn in for the procedure on Tuesday. From then on, the prosecutors and defense lawyers would have time to work out their positions, said Democrat Chuck Schumer. In the week of February 8, the process should then begin.

In the Senate, Schumer has taken over the majority leadership from Republican Mitch McConnell. This means that all procedural questions can now be determined by the Democrats, who, together with the casting vote of Vice President Kamala Harris, have a slim majority of 51-50 votes in the Senate. You determine whether and which witnesses should be heard and what evidence is admitted.

There are hardly any fixed rules for all of this. These are adjusted for each impeachment procedure, mostly based on previous procedures.

It is still unclear whether the Senate will initially concentrate solely on the impeachment process. Or whether he creates the freedom to confirm ministers in office whom Joe Biden has nominated. Another Corona aid package is also pending.

Whether foreign, defense or deputy building minister, almost every important government position has to be confirmed by the Senate. And every candidate is first heard by the Senate. That costs time, which the Senate does not have when it first has to go through a complex impeachment procedure.

What sense does it make to want to remove a president who is no longer in office?

There are various reasons for this. For one thing, it would be a symbolic drawing of boundaries. A president has never been removed from office. Trump would be the first. It would be tantamount to a subsequent dishonorable discharge. The very fact that Trump is the first president to be indicted twice in one term is a significant historical flaw.

A solid reason, however, is that the Senators can forbid Trump to accept public office in the future. The danger of Trump running for the 2024 presidential election would thus be averted.

This is only possible after a two-thirds majority has decided to impeach. Seventeen Republican Senators would have to vote with the Democrats to make that possible. Trump could then be excluded from all future offices with a simple majority.

The Democrats hope the argument can win a number of Republicans on their side. So far the chances of this are slim. Mitch McConnell has shown sympathy for impeachment. And recently accused Trump of “provoking” the uprising in the Capitol. If he were to publicly announce that he would vote for Trump’s impeachment, it could inspire some Republicans to do the same. Mitchell’s calculation: He wants to curtail Trump’s influence on the Republican Party.

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Biden’s Inauguration: Fort Washington – Politics

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No parade, no parties, no handshakes: Joe Biden’s swearing-in will be different from pretty much everyone before. This is due to Corona, Trump – and the storm on the Capitol. The security authorities have to show that a peaceful change of power in the USA is still possible.

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Alan Cassidy, Washington

Only one thing will be the same: at noon on January 20th, the new President of the United States will take the oath of office. Joe Biden will be in the open air on the stage set up on the west side of the Capitol. He will put his left hand on the family Bible, a copy from 1893, two bricks thick, a Celtic cross on the leather envelope. Then he will raise his right hand to take an oath. But otherwise? It will be an inauguration like none before. There won’t be any crowds cheering for the new president from the National Mall. No parade on Pennsylvania Avenue. No balls, no parties and no special menus in the restaurants. And last but not least, none of the traditions that normally make a handover: coffee with the outgoing President in the Blue Room of the White House. The handshake, the gifts and the courtesies. The common trip to the Capitol. As well as?

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Ex-advisor Bolton sees Donald Trump as the worst US president of all time

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John Bolton was Donald Trump’s National Security Advisor, and then it fell apart. In the interview he talks about the mistakes in dealing with the president, his place in history – and about the dispute with Germany that will remain.

John Bolton passes harsh judgment on the man he served as National Security Advisor in the White House for 17 months. Donald Trump will “definitely go down in history as the worst US president,” said the Republican in an interview with t-online.

Bolton portrays the fear of many Republican politicians of the outgoing president as exaggerated. His party could quickly free itself from the clutches of Trump. “Trump will have more to do with the investigation into him and with his business and financial problems than with our party.”

The foreign policy hardliner, on the other hand, warns Europe and Germany that the major issues of the Trump era will persist even under President Joe Biden – and is hoping for a certain initiative from Angela Merkel in recent months in office.

t-online: Mr. Bolton, did you work for the worst US president of all time?

John Bolton: Yes, I think Trump will definitely go down in history as the worst US president. So far, James Buchanan has been considered the worst for breaking the United States in 1860 before the Civil War. But Trump will dispute this place for him. What happened with the storming of the Capitol on January 6th was truly an offense worthy of impeachment. That a president would field a mob against his own government was terrible and a very, very sad day for America.

So you are in favor of formally removing Trump from office?

No. I think his offense was bad enough for that, but I don’t see the benefit of going into this major constitutional process now. To do this, one would have to prove that this path is more useful than the variant of simply making Trump disappear. He will soon face criminal investigations anyway. The absolute worst punishment for Trump would be to simply ignore him in the future. Impeachment achieves the opposite.

John Bolton, 72, is a Republican hardliner on foreign and security policy. He served as the UN ambassador under George W. Bush and was a vocal supporter of the Iraq war. He rejected the nuclear deal with Iran and, as Donald Trump’s national security advisor, brought the Americans out of the agreement. About his time in the White House, which ended in September 2019 because of persistent differences with Trump, he wrote the book “The Room Where Everything Happened”.

You have been working in the field of national security for decades. What are the consequences of such an attack, which is broadcast around the world in real time?

It is very damaging to our country. You don’t want to see something like that in a democratic society. It was a catastrophic security failure that needs to be investigated. It also throws a terrible light on Donald Trump that he was part of it – and I don’t think we already know everything about his role. However, I think that it will accelerate his departure as a formative force on the political stage.

Well, even on the night after the attack, two thirds of your party friends in the House of Representatives voted against the confirmation of Joe Biden’s election victory and thus played Trump’s game. Are you ashamed of your party?

Many who voted like this were intimidated by Trump, unnecessarily in my view. My party’s failure came before Trump spreading his claims of a stolen election for weeks despite being rejected by courts across the country. Much more Republicans should have raised their voices. One of the repair jobs for us Republicans now is to make it clear to as many as possible that Trump really lost.

Trump has long since convinced many supporters at the party base of his lie. How much power will he have in the future?

Of the 74 million voters who voted for Trump, more than 90 percent would also have voted for a cardboard comrade set up by the Republican Party. It’s the same on the other side. When he moves from the most powerful room in the world, the Oval Office, to the swimming pool in Mar-a-Lago on January 20th, everything will change. Trump does not have the party in his hands. That makes room for sensible Republicans. We have this proverb in politics here: If sensible politicians do not take care of the needs of the citizens, unreasonable politicians will. This is how you get a Trump.

Aren’t you too optimistic about that? In our last conversation in August, you said that after the election the party would turn away from Trump very quickly. It turned out differently.

Former presidents are yesterday’s news. Trump will have more to do with the investigation into him and with his business and financial problems than with our party. If he leaves office, things will not look good for him personally and financially.

Famous scene from the G7 summit in Canada in 2018: Bolton watches Angela Merkel and Donald Trump. (Source: Jesco Denzel / Federal Government / Getty Images)

The president is said to have enjoyed the excess of violence on television on January 6th. Do these reports match the president you saw up close at the White House?

I think these reports are absolutely credible. In my book I suggested that someone should do a work time study for Trump and compare the times they spend in the Oval Office and in the small dining room next to it, where there is a large TV screen on the wall. In my mind’s eye I can literally see him sitting there and watching the spectacle. He was probably fascinated by the acting. After all, it was all about Donald Trump, and that’s his favorite subject.

Will you ever speak to Donald Trump again?

At least I’m not looking forward to it if we should.

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Let’s look ahead. The new US administration has made it clear that it wants to repair Trump’s damaged relations with its allies in Europe. What will depend on whether this really works?

It would be a mistake if Europe thinks that with Trump’s departure, certain issues will simply disappear. His complaints about trade policy remain relevant, and both sides need to break down trade barriers. Trump’s complaints about NATO and the burden-sharing within the alliance will also remain topical. Germany would make no more friends with the Democrats in Washington than with the Republicans if defense spending was cut back to 1.1 percent of economic output. I would definitely not recommend that. The Germans also have to pay their fair share.

Are you interested in US politics? Washington correspondent Fabian Reinbold writes a newsletter about his impressions from the USA and the change in power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden. Here you can subscribe to the “Post from Washington” free of charge, which then lands directly in your mailbox once a week.

Will a common strategy for dealing with China be found without Trump?

The Biden government will surprise many Europeans with a confrontational China policy. It won’t be as hard as I would like it to be, but harder than people in Europe think.

How should Germany deal with it?

Angela Merkel suggested to Donald Trump at numerous meetings that they should unite against China where they have similar interests: in the theft of intellectual property and in Beijing’s unfair trade practices. If the opinion of the Americans in the room had been asked at these meetings, we would all have been in favor, with the exception of Trump. While Merkel is still in office, President Biden should propose these joint initiatives again.

Mr Bolton, thank you for talking to us.

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House of Representatives initiates impeachment – politics

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As the first US president in the country’s history, Donald Trump has to face an impeachment for the second time in his term of office. The House of Representatives approved an indictment resolution on Wednesday with 232 votes to 197, in which Trump is accused of “inciting an insurrection” because of the storm he instigated on the Capitol.

The President should therefore be removed from office, and another candidacy for public office should be banned, demanded the House of Representatives. In addition to all Democrats, ten Republicans also voted for impeachment.

Pelosi: Trump incited “domestic terrorists”

At the meeting in the House of Representatives, Chairwoman Nancy Pelosi described Trump as a “threat to the country”. The Republican incited “domestic terrorists” to fight back against his election defeat, she said. “You didn’t come out of a vacuum.” Trump was guilty of “inciting a riot”.

The reason for the indictment is a speech by Trump in Washington last Wednesday in which he urged thousands of supporters to march to parliament. At this time, a joint meeting of the House of Representatives and Senate took place in the Capitol to approve the result of the presidential election and thus the election victory of the Democrat Joe Biden. Trump wanted to prevent this official confirmation.

Leading Republicans distance themselves from Trump

After the speech, hundreds of Trump supporters moved to Congress. They engaged in brawls with the police, broke into the building and forced parliamentarians to suspend the session and get to safety. A total of five people were killed in the clashes.

Even before the vote on the impeachment, leading Republicans had distanced themselves from Trump. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell leaked to the media Tuesday that he had no problem with the impeachment process. The probability that the powerful senator will vote against Trump himself is higher than 50 percent, it said. In Washington, this was taken as a signal to the Republican senators that they were free to distance themselves from Trump.

Liz Cheney is one of the dissidents

There were also dissidents in the House of Representatives. Republican MP Liz Cheney attacked the president sharply in a statement. Trump cheered the mob that stormed the Capitol, wrote the eldest daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, who represents Wyoming in the House of Representatives.

The president had thereby betrayed his office and his oath on the constitution. “I will vote to remove the president from office,” she announced. Cheney is number three in the Republican parliamentary hierarchy in the House of Representatives.

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This time there are more deviants than the first time

It was considered certain that the House of Representatives would approve the impeachment charge against Trump. A simple majority, which the Democrats have in the chamber, is sufficient for this. In addition to Cheney, several other Republicans had announced that they would vote for Trump’s impeachment.

In the end, ten Republicans voted against Trump. That was more deviants than the first impeachment a year ago. At that time, only one Republican had voted with the Democrats, who had also previously left the party. Given the fact that the Republican faction in the House of Representatives has 211 members, the group of Trump opponents was manageable. This shows how great the president’s influence on the party is.

It is unclear when and how it will continue

It is now unclear when and how the impeachment will continue. The House of Representatives only decides whether or not to bring charges. The verdict is passed by the Senate, where two thirds of the 100 members would have to vote to remove Trump from office. The Democrats only hold 50 seats, however, they need the support of at least 17 Republicans.

Right now, so many Republicans are unlikely to drop Trump. But after McConnell’s sudden turnaround, it cannot be ruled out either, especially if the majority leader himself votes against Trump. However, it remains to be seen whether the Senate will even deal with the indictment. The chamber is on a break until January 19, Trump’s regular term ends on January 20

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Trump impeachment: Democrats seek retaliation – politics

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Anyone who expected a bit of contrition, a little self-criticism or even remorse, was disappointed. But who expects contrition, self-criticism or remorse from Donald Trump? The elected US president has shown in recent years that he is neither able nor willing to do so. Why should that change in his last days in office?

And so Trump stood in front of the Tuesday afternoon Air Force One and very expectedly dismissed all guilt for the storm on the Capitol that shook the US to its foundations last Wednesday. Trump was asked whether he had contributed to the violence by giving a speech that day calling on his supporters to march to the congress building and fight for him. Not at all, replied the President. Many people had read his speech and they all felt that what he had said was “perfectly appropriate” – “totally appropriate”. He even used this characterization twice. Everyone, absolutely everyone, thought his speech was “perfectly appropriate,” he said.

Like so much of what Trump says, that is not true. The opposite is more likely to be true: a large number of MPs and senators who were in the Capitol last Wednesday and fled from the rioting Trump fans in fear of death blame the president personally for the attack. The Democrats had therefore asked Vice President Mike Pence to declare Trump incapable of office and to remove him under the 25th Amendment to the Constitution. But because Pence refused to do so, Trump’s allegedly appropriate speech will result in him becoming the first president in US history to have not one but two impeachment proceedings this Wednesday.

The indictment, which the House of Representatives will presumably pass on Wednesday afternoon, Washington time, accuses the President of only one violation: “inciting insurrection”. To prevent Congress on January 6 from fulfilling its statutory task of confirming the result of the presidential election and thus the victory of Democrat Joe Biden, Trump incited his supporters to “commit illegal acts at the Capitol”. These supporters then stormed parliament. Trump has thereby endangered the security of the country, attacked America’s democracy, hindered a peaceful change of government and broken the trust that the people place in his president. For this reason, he must be removed from office and any further candidacy for public office – that is, a second presidential application – must be prohibited, the indictment demands.

Getting the simple majority needed in the House of Representatives to approve the charges shouldn’t be a problem. The Democrats rule the House of Parliament, and in contrast to the first impeachment a year ago, up to a dozen Republicans will now stand against Trump in the second. For example, MEP Liz Cheney, who is number three in the group’s leadership and daughter of George W. Bush’s Vice President Dick Cheney, announced that she would vote for impeachment.

Whether or not Trump is actually removed from office is then in the hands of the Senate. The Republicans have a majority in this chamber until January 20th. And even after that, when the Democrats have taken power, the Trump opponents currently lack the two-thirds majority necessary to replace the president. That would require 17 or 18 Republicans to vote with the Democrats. That’s not very likely at the moment. These majority ratios saved Trump from conviction a year ago when he was first impeached.

In addition, the Senate is currently on break, it will probably not meet again until January 19 – one day before Trump’s term of office ends anyway and Biden is sworn in as the new president. If there is an impeachment process in the Senate at all, it will probably only after Trump’s departure.

Why then, impeachment proceedings against a president who will lose his office in a week anyway? In the case of the Democrats, the motivations can be described in one word: retaliation. You have the impression, not without good reason, that Trump has tried to stage something like a cold coup against the election winner Biden through his lies about electoral fraud and through his pressure on Republican officials in several states – with the active help of many of his party friends in Washington. This cold coup, the Democrats see it, turned into a hot one last Wednesday after the storm on the Capitol, during and after at least five people were killed, two of them by violence. If this is not behavior that justifies impeachment, what then? The Democrats ask.

Unlike the first impeachment proceedings, which revolved around Trump’s attempt to force Ukraine to investigate Biden, the Democratic spokeswoman for the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, didn’t hesitate for long this time either. She was in the Capitol when the mob stormed the building, some of the intruders raging in her office. It is therefore a very personal concern for them to hold Trump accountable for this attack, it is said in democratic circles – no matter how long he is still in office.

The process also shows that the impeachment should be more of a court martial than a regular criminal proceeding. The Democrats are foregoing evidence, they are not requesting documents from the White House, nor are they summoning witnesses to the Judiciary Committee, as they did a year ago to solve Trump’s machinations with Ukraine. Instead: one charge, one vote – done.

The head of the Republican Senate is angry with Trump

In the Senate, the situation is a little more complicated. It is unlikely that the Chamber will remove the President from office by a two-thirds majority at the end of his term of office. The votes are currently missing. But at least it cannot be ruled out that that will change: The New York Times In any case, reported on Tuesday, very surprisingly, that the Republican parliamentary group leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, was not at all sad that his colleagues in the House of Representatives are pushing the impeachment. He also believes that Trump’s behavior justifies impeachment. According to another report, the chance that McConnell would vote to convict Trump is greater than 50 percent. Such a vote would be an unprecedented attack by the powerful senator on the president.

McConnell was angry with Trump even before last Wednesday: He blames the president directly for the fact that the Republicans lost the two Senate elections in Georgia on January 5 and that he will in future bear the title of “minority leader” instead of the title of “majority leader” because the Democrats are taking power in the Chamber. From McConnell’s point of view, the reported New York Times, the impeachment process is therefore a way to eliminate Trump as a power factor in the party and to block his way to another candidacy.

The Senator from Kentucky is playing a calculated game. You could almost call it cynical: when the president was the undisputed leader of the Republican Party, McConnell used him to install dozens of conservative judges in federal courts. Now that Trump has become politically toxic, that alliance with him has no value to McConnell.

What Donald Trump thinks of the dubious honor of being the only US president against whom two impeachment proceedings have been initiated, he also revealed on Tuesday. “The impeachment is ridiculous,” he grumbled before flying over to his border wall in Texas for a brief visit. The Democrats just couldn’t stop their “witch hunt” on him.

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Capitol and Reichstag: How the Right of America Learns – Culture

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Interview by

Alex Rühle

How does the German right discuss the storming of the Capitol in Washington? What connections are there between Alt-Right in the USA and identities here with us? And what have right-wing extremist groups in Europe copied from America? Information about this is provided by David Anbich, who has been a member of the right-wing extremism office at Mit Another e. V. in Magdeburg does prevention work.

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Is Donald Trump’s Family Burned Politically? “He has blood on his hands”

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With his supporters storming the US Capitol, US President Donald Trump could have squandered his political prospects. Even close allies no longer see him as a candidate for leadership positions.

Photo series with 30 pictures

The storming of his supporters on the Capitol and ignoring his electoral defeat could spoil US President Donald Trump’s political future prospects. The chances of followers and family members in a leadership role are likely to have deteriorated significantly, as incumbent and former members of Trump’s government team say behind the scenes.

Trump had repeatedly indicated his intention to run again in the 2024 presidential election and it was considered certain that he would have great influence on his Republican party. But the events surrounding the Capitol – the heart of American democracy – have changed everything, according to insiders. Read here why another impeachment trial against Trump could end his political career.

“He’s got blood on his hands now”

His behavior, encouraging supporters at a rally to march on the parliamentary seat with unproven fraud allegations to protest against the confirmation of Joe Biden’s election victory and only hesitantly to call for an end after the tumult, greatly disappointed many people around him upset.

“It was a breach of duty as Commander in Chief, and I think his political career prospects have been fatally wounded,” said a former Trump White House employee. “He now has blood on his hands,” he added, referring to the supporter of Trump, who was shot and fatally injured by the police when they stormed the congress building. Three other protesters and a police officer died in the riot.

“There is no going back from what happened. It was turmoil. I don’t see how there can be a future,” said another former government official. “I think the cabinet members who have stayed and who do not speak out now or who are just resigning in secret have a flaw forever.” As an example, he cited Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who is said to have ambitions for the presidency, and who only briefly described the riots at the Capitol as “unacceptable” on Twitter. The State Department did not want to comment.

Only Ivanka Trump was able to get her father to distance himself from the violence

Transport Minister Elaine Chao and Education Minister Betsy DeVos were the first to resign in protest. “There is no doubt about the impact your rhetoric had on the situation, and it is the turning point for me,” DeVos wrote in her resignation letter to Trump. According to insiders, at least six advisers to the National Security Council had previously resigned.

Trump’s distancing from the violence came late and only after his daughter Ivanka intervened, as a member of the presidential office emphasized. He also pointed out that the events are likely to complicate the political careers of Trump’s family members, such as a possible candidacy of his daughter-in-law Lara Trump for a Senate seat in the state of North Carolina.

“Over time he will continue to be a very strong voice”

Trump is also likely to have difficulties in the future in collecting larger sums of donations for his plans, as another ex-White House employee explained. “I think anything beyond a low dollar amount is going to be a problem,” he said. “Anything beyond a $ 100 donor is out.”

But even in the Republican Party, Trump is now facing a harsher wind. Senator Lindsey Graham, a longtime ally of the president, said Wednesday night angrily and firmly: “Enough is enough,” added that Biden was legitimately elected. He doesn’t think Trump will be elected to anything else, said another former presidential officer. “Over time, he will continue to be a very strong voice and he will have a very large following, but (…) I think it all reduces the chances of him running for anything.”

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On the Storming of the Capitol: What Makes Trump’s Fans Dangerous – Culture

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The barbarians at the gates of Washington are no strangers like they were in ancient Rome. Some of them are completely normal compatriots. That is probably the real problem.

Anyone who as a person, i.e. as a reader, has made the experience that not only everything that has already happened, but also everything that can still happen can be found somewhere in a book, may right now in Edward Gibbons “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire “. In 1776, of all things, which for the USA is something like the birth of Jesus for Christianity, the first of six volumes by the English historian Gibbon appeared, in which it is told how first the Western Roman and then the Eastern Roman Empire dissolved like power and morals crumbled and then fell apart.

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A second impeachment policy awaits Trump

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Nancy Pelosi, the powerful Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives, number three in political rank after the president and vice president, appears determined to hold Donald Trump accountable for Wednesday’s Capitol storm. On Friday, Pelosi issued a threat that can hardly be retracted: If Trump does not resign “immediately” or his Vice Mike Pence does not immediately initiate impeachment proceedings under Amendment 25 of the Constitution, then Congress will begin a second impeachment proceedings against Trump.

Pelosi and the head of the Democratic Party in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, had already made these demands on Thursday. But Pelosi has now increased the pressure significantly with the word “immediately”.

Pelosi will not seriously assume Trump or Pence will comply with their request. So far, at any rate, Pence has apparently not even responded to Schumer’s and Pelosi’s request for a call back. He will make no move to mess it up with Trump – or better, his millions of supporters. Some of them already think Pence is a traitor. On Thursday night he fulfilled his constitutional duty in Congress and formally announced and thus confirmed Joe Biden’s election victory. Trump called Pence “weak” because of this, and many supporters of Trump saw Pence’s behavior as outrageous.

Pence would have to convene the cabinet and get a majority there for Trump’s inability to office. There is supposed to be a debate among the ministers about it, but no one has yet dared to publicly declare that they want to lift Trump out of office. Two who might have raised their hands for it preferred to resign. Education Minister Betsy deVos and Transport Minister Elaine Chao. As long as pence doesn’t move, nothing moves.

It is therefore almost certain that a new impeachment will be initiated by the House of Representatives on Monday, reports various US media. There could be a vote on this in the middle of the week.

After a three-and-a-half-hour telephone conference with the Democrats in the House of Representatives, Pelosi said it was “Members’ hope that the President will resign immediately”. In the event that he does not do that, they have instructed the “Rules Committee” to “be prepared”. The Committee is a kind of committee of rules of procedure in the House of Representatives. He should prepare himself for all eventualities.

If, for example, Pence and the cabinet give in and declare Trump incapacitated, Trump could contradict the decision. It would then be up to the parliamentarians to declare Trump incapable of fulfilling “the duties and obligations of his office”. If this does not happen, draft resolutions must be prepared for the House by the “Rules Committee”, which are apparently already being worked on.

A first draft for the impeachment resolution became public on Friday. Accordingly, Trump should be charged with “inciting a rebellion”. Called on by Trump, thousands of Trump supporters made their way to the Capitol on Wednesday after the President’s speech in front of the White House. There they were involved in “violent, deadly, destructive and rebellious acts”. Trump thereby threatened the “integrity of the democratic system”. He had shown that he would “pose a threat to national security, democracy and the constitution” if he was allowed to remain in office.

17 Republicans would have to defeat the Senate

Impeachment proceedings are vaguely reminiscent of legal proceedings. The House of Representatives acts as an indictment. The Senate as a court. The House of Representatives collects evidence, formulates the charges and votes on them. A simple majority is enough to bring the indictment to the Senate. The Senate must then immediately examine the charges. Each of the 100 senators is a judge in the trial. If in the end two-thirds of the senators approve, Trump is convicted and removed from office.

The whole process took many weeks in the three cases of impeachment in US history. With great effort and a lot of non-partisan will, it would be possible to remove Trump from the Oval Office before his last day at work on January 20. The rules certainly allow for such a speed impeachment. But it is not very likely. Especially not as long as the Senate is not formally in democratic hands.

For that to happen, the two new Democratic Senators, Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, elected in Georgia last Tuesday, would have to have taken their seats in the Senate, which will probably only happen after Biden’s swearing-in on January 20.

Even if everything has its new order after January 20, a two-thirds majority is still required to condemn Trump. 17 of the 50 Republican senators would have to side with the Democrats. Politically speaking, Trump would then be posthumously removed from office.

In the impeachment case that was concluded against Trump a year ago, there was only one Republican who switched sides: Mitt Romney from Utah. He has not yet made a clear statement about a new impeachment. Senator Ben Sasse from Nebraska has at least announced that he will look closely at the charges. On Friday, Lisa Murkowski from Alaska, the first female senator, called for Trump to resign. But she kept it open whether she would also support impeachment. You are now thinking about whether you can continue to be a Republican, she said.

Initially, it does not seem sensible to want to remove Trump from office after January 20. Then he is no longer in office. But he could be dismissed dishonorably afterwards in this way. And with another vote, he could be forbidden from ever again seeking public office. A renewed candidacy of Trump in 2024 would be off the table. Some Democrats hope to use the argument to win over moderate Republicans in the Senate who want to end the Trump chapter once and for all. Even if that doesn’t work, Trump would be the first US President against whom the House would decide on a second impeachment. More flaws are hardly possible.

But Pelosi also worries about something else. How an insane president can be kept away from the nuclear weapons codes. She told her party friends in a letter that she had telephoned the chairman of the joint general staff, General Mark Milley, to sound out the possibilities of preventing an “unstable president from initiating military hostilities” or “ordering a nuclear strike.”

It is not known what General Milley replied to this highly unusual request. In the Ministry of Defense, however, Pelosi’s advance was not so well received, reports the New York Times. Trump is still the commander in chief. And as long as he is in office, the military must follow his lawful instructions. Proactively removing the president from the chain of command would be tantamount to a military coup.

President-elect Joe Biden has stayed out of everything so far. The impeachment is anyway a question that ultimately has to answer Congress, not him, he said on Friday. He was only happy about Trump’s announcement that he would not be attending the inauguration. That is a “good thing”. And arguably one of the few things “he and I will ever agree”.

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ZDF presenter shows remains after the Capitol storm

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They wanted to thwart the peaceful transfer of power to Joe Biden – and in the process created chaotic conditions. Radical Trump supporters stormed the Capitol and also threatened media representatives. A ZDF presenter now shows the remains.

Photo series with 30 pictures

When radical Trump fans stormed the government seat in the US capital Washington on Wednesday, they produced frightening images – here you can see a selection of the dystopian scenes. The mob raged in the parliament building and created chaotic conditions outside as well. Media representatives, among others, had to fear for their physical integrity and their equipment.

As documented by pictures and video recordings, the rioters targeted press and television journalists on site, were attacked and stole their technical equipment. Cameras, microphones and transport boxes for other utensils such as cables or headlights were then demolished. German media were also affected. A ZDF team had to surrender parts of its equipment, and a transmitter’s microphone later appeared on pictures of the mob.

Now the ZDF journalist Elmar Theveßen speaks up on Twitter – and shows a current picture of the destroyed technology. “Our headlights are back, in almost perfect condition,” he joked in his statement at the beginning. But then the reporter gets serious and grumbles: “What pathetic wretches who apparently had to react to their complexes.”

The colleagues on site got away with the horror. As ZDF has already confirmed, the journalists were not injured. A comment on Twitter reads: “Technology can be replaced, but not the story and the health of the team. I’m glad nothing happened to you.” The incumbent US President Donald Trump had incited his supporters a few hours before the riots at the US Capitol and, among other things, repeated his allegations of the alleged “lying press” – you can speak see here in the video.

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