2nd Trump Impeachment: How Georgia's House Representatives Voted

GEORGIA — U.S. representatives from Georgia split on impeaching President Donald Trump on a charge that he incited the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol last week. The House voted 232-197 in favor, making Trump the first president in U.S. history to be impeached twice.

The historic House vote took place a week after a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in a siege that resulted in five deaths — including the beating death of a Capitol Police officer, multiple arrests and a sprawling FBI investigation. Ten Republicans broke with their party and voted to impeach, while four more Republicans abstained. The impeachment comes a week before President-elect Joe Biden is to be inaugurated in a city on high alert amid ongoing threats of violence.

Rep. Andrew Clyde (R), who represents Georgia’s 9th District, including Gainesville, opposed impeachment, calling it Democrat’s payback to Trump.

“It is a shameful final act of political retribution,” Clyde said. “Retribution this president has faced since Day One. However, there will be no investigation in the People’s house as to whether the allegation against the president meets the criteria for a crime worthy of impeachment. That sets an extremely dangerous precedent for the future. ”

District 14's Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R), also voted against impeachment, calling Democrats hypocrites for bringing the measure to the House floor.

“Democrats have spent all this time endorsing and enabling violent riots that left billions in property damage,” said Greene, who represents Rome and Dalton, from the floor Wednesday. “Democrats will take away everyone’s guns just as long as they have guards with guns. Democrats’ impeachment of Donald trump has now set the standard that they should be removed for their support of violence against the American people.”

Lucy McBath, the Democrat representing the 6th District which includes Cobb County, said she had a “heavy heart” as she voted to impeach Trump.

“It is our duty to shoulder that defense of our democracy here today,” McBath said. “The president’s actions have laid bare his contempt for our Constitution and he must be removed.”

Rep. David Scott (D), whose 13th District represents parts of Douglas, Cobb, Fulton, Henry, Fayette and Clayton counties, invoked the memories of civilizations past as he voiced his decision to impeach.

“On the just sun-bleached bones of history of many great nations are written those pathetic bones: ‘Too late. They moved too late to save their great nations.’ Let us not move this day too late to save our great nation.

Here's how each of Georgia's representatives voted:

Democrats

• Sanford D. Bishop, Jr.: Yes
• Carolyn Bourdeaux: Yes
• Hank Johnson: Yes
• Lucy McBath: Yes
• David Scott: Yes
• Nikema Williams: Yes

Republicans

• Rick Allen: No
• Buddy Carter: No
• Andrew Clyde: No
• A. Ferguson: No
• Marjorie Greene: No
• Jody Hice: No
• Barry Loudermilk: No
• Austin Scott: No

What's Next: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky will not allow the Senate to vote to convict Trump — which would have been an extraordinary turn by a Republican leader who has defended and protected Trump during the four years of his tumultuous presidency.

• If an impeachment trial is allowed in the Senate, it will be after Biden is inaugurated, McConnell said Wednesday. McConnell has reportedly said he believes Trump committed impeachable offenses, and that moving forward with a vote would make it easier for Republicans to purge Trumpism from their party, but said Wednesday he intends to “listen to the legal arguments when they are presented to the Senate.”
• McConnell staff said he will defer to New York Democrat Chuck Schumer, who will become the new majority leader, to manage the process.

• Biden has suggested the Senate could “bifurcate” — that is spend half of the day confirming his Cabinet nominees and the other half on impeachment matters.

• Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, the third-ranking member of the House Republican leadership, is among more than two dozen Republicans who signaled they would break from their party and vote to impeach Trump.

• "There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution," she said in a statement Tuesday.

Trial In The Senate: Two-thirds of the chamber would have to vote to convict Trump. The Senate exonerated Trump last year on charges of abuse of power and contempt of Congress after special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, but the charge against Trump this time is more clear-cut.

Under the Constitution, the Senate could prevent him from holding federal office again and strip him of other perks afforded to former presidents.

As lawmakers debated the need for and grave potential consequence of impeaching Trump for a second time, the FBI warned of armed protests in the days ahead of Biden’s inauguration. Statehouses in all 50 states have been targeted for protests.

On Tuesday, the House of Representatives voted in favor of a resolution asking Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment and assume the duties of the president in the final week before President-elect Joe Biden takes office Jan. 20. But Pence, in a letter addressed to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, said he would not invoke the 25th Amendment.

The agency is also monitoring chatter on an encrypted messaging platform about plans by Trump extremists to form perimeters around the Capitol, the White House and the Supreme Court building as Biden takes the oath of office.