It has been a crazy month on Capitol Hill in Washington. Six days into the new year, while Congress was attempting to finalize President Joe Biden’s victory over former President Donald Trump, rioters stormed the capitol, halting the proceedings on the floor for some time (Sightline’s article on that event can be found here). But what did our leaders do afterward?
Following the unfortunate failure of the capitol security to keep out rioters, DC Chief of Police Steven Sund has resigned. It took effect on January 16. A CBS article outlined his resignation, highlighting the criticism of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. She called for his resignation saying “there was a failure at the top of the Capitol Police.” In a 60 minutes segment, Sund essentially said that if his leaders didn’t want him there he felt it necessary to resign.
Congress also was very quickly acting to punish Donald Trump. Many in Congress believed that Trump had a major influence on the events later that afternoon and evening. There was talk about enacting the 25th amendment, however, they eventually succeeded in the second impeachment of Donald Trump. This makes Trump the only president to be impeached twice, let alone in one term. The vote to impeach the President was bipartisan with all democrats and ten republicans voting ‘yea.’ He was impeached on grounds of “Inciting Insurrection,” as stated in the impeachment article.
In the impeachment article, numerous Trump quotes were cited, one of the most important was taken from his speech at his rally that morning. He said, “if you don’t fight like hell you’re not going to have a country anymore.” It was then decided by the House that this statement, among others, incited insurrection against the United States of America.
Now that Trump is impeached, the country is waiting for his Senate trial to take place. The Senators will effectively be the ones to decide Trump’s future. The trial will continue into Joe Biden’s presidency so Trump can’t exactly be removed. However, there is more to be determined. As KHOU 11 reported (KHOU is a CBS-affiliated news station out of Houston, Texas), Trump can still run for president in 2024 and beyond. However, after the Senate trial, that right could be taken away, along with a $200,000 pension and other benefits former presidents receive.
In just 14 days the country went from a democratic crisis to a new capital Chief of Police to an impeachment to a new president. Thankfully the inauguration of Joe Biden had no issues. Despite fears of another riot by far-right Trump supporters, and possibly thanks to increased security, the new President and everyone in attendance were safe. So as of January 20, 2021, Joe Biden is the 46th President of The United States. We should all hope that there can be a sustained peace contrary to the past few months, and we should all hope that it can be sustained no matter who is president.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-capitol-riot-police-chief-resigns-steven-sund/