President Trump impeached for a second time

WASHINGTON — PBS and PBS NewsHour are providing live special coverage of the House of Representatives’ impeachment proceedings regarding President Donald Trump.

Just before 2:30 p.m. MT on January 13, 2021, the vote count in the House passed the needed 218 votes to impeach President Trump. He is the only president in history to be impeached twice.

The live coverage of the proceedings began at 7:00 a.m. MT and is also available via live stream.

The duration of the hearing is unknown but is expected to last well into the evening. PBS NewsHour will provide anchored coverage until 3:00 p.m. MT. Unanchored coverage will be available to stream online after 3:00 p.m. on NewsHour’s website and Rocky Mountain PBS social platforms. The PBS NewsHour nightly broadcast will include reporting and updates from the day’s proceedings.

Managing editor Judy Woodruff will anchor the special programming with contributions from White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor, Capitol Hill correspondent Lisa Desjardins and other guests. You can watch the impeachment proceedings and NewsHour's live coverage in the video players below.

Democrats introduced the article of impeachment Monday, January 11, charging Trump with "incitement of insurrection." Trump would be the first president to be impeached twice.

The impeachment article says Trump, during a speech in front of his supporters January 6, "willfully made statements that, in context, encouraged — and foreseeably resulted in — lawless action at the Capitol, such as: 'if you don't fight like hell you're not going to have a county anymore.'"

The New York Times reported yesterday that Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told people close to him that Trump committed impeachable offenses and that he is “pleased” Democrats are moving forward with the vote to remove Trump from office. The Times also reported that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has asked other members of his party if he should ask the president to resign.

President Trump's second impeachment comes a week after the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, when a violent mob of the president’s supporters breached the building as lawmakers and Vice President Mike Pence were certifying President-elect Biden's electoral college victory, something Trump had refused to acknowledge.

At least five people died in the attack, including U.S. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick. He was reportedly hit in the head with a fire extinguisher during the riot outside the Capitol and died from his injuries the following day. Another one of the casualties was a woman identified as Ashli Babbitt, who was fatally wounded when a police officer shot her as she attempted to climb through a window leading to the Speaker’s Lobby of the Capitol that was shattered by rioters.

Before marching down Pennsylvania Avenue and attacking the Capitol, the would-be insurrectionists participated in the "March to Save America," an event organized by Pro-Trump groups. Trump attended the rally and spoke to the crowd, repeating false claims that the election was rigged and urging attendees to march to the Capitol and “fight like hell.” At one point in his remarks, the president said, “you'll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength.”

President Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani also spoke at the rally, where he called for “trial by combat.” The comments from the president and his allies have raised legal questions about their responsibility in fomenting violence. On Tuesday, Trump told reporters during a visit to Texas that he took no responsibility for the attack on the Capitol.

“People thought that what I said was totally appropriate,” the president said.

Lisa Desjardins was inside the Capitol when the mob broke through windows and doors. “This is an ongoing battle which police are losing,” Desjardins said to Woodruff during a live report. “It looks like protesters are entering the Capitol at will.”