Page 12 - Turmoil in America: The 2020 Election

would not result in the removal of the president from office—the
voters had already seen to that—but could bar Trump from seek-
ing the presidency again.

The Second Impeachment

On January 13, 2020, one week before Biden’s inauguration, the
House voted to impeach Trump a second time. The vote was
232–197. Unlike the previous impeachment, this time ten Repub-
lican members of the House joined Democrats in voting to ap-
prove a single article of impeachment charging Trump with com-
mitting incitement of insurrection by urging the crowd to lay siege
to the Capitol on January 6. Said the article of impeachment, “He
threatened the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with
the peaceful transition of power, and imperiled a coequal branch
of government. He thereby betrayed his trust as president, to the
manifest injury of the people of the United States.” 48
The Senate staged a trial on the impeachment charge com-
mencing on February 9. The trial lasted four days. This time, Mitt
Romney as well as six other Republican senators joined all Demo-
crats in voting to convict the president. The final vote was 57–43

in favor of conviction. Again, though, the vote fell short of the two-
thirds majority required for a conviction, resulting in an acquittal on
the charge.
The vote to acquit the former president finally brought the
tumultuous 2020 election for the presidency to an end. For all
Americans, 2020 will remain a divisive year in politics—a year
when a pandemic swept across the country, Black citizens and
others marched for racial justice, and many Americans found their
homes and even their lives in danger from the threat of climate
change. But in the end, the American system of democracy pre-
vailed. A fair election was held, and whether they cast their ballots
in person or by mail, voters had their say in who should lead them
for the next four years.

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