Cicilline Leads the Way as House Impeaches Trump
Speaker Pelosi taps Gay Rhode Island congressmemeber as impeachment manager
BY MATT TRACY
The House of Representatives,
led in part by
out gay impeachment
manager David Cicilline
of Rhode Island, voted to impeach
President Donald Trump exactly
seven days after he directed a mob
of his supporters to invade the US
Capitol.
With support from 10 Republicans,
the lower chamber voted
232-197 to impeach the president
for a second time on January 13,
capping off a whirlwind week during
which widespread calls for
Trump’s removal were echoed by
LGBTQ groups and lawmakers
across the nation.
Cicilline and Congressmembers
Ted Lieu of California, Jamie
Raskin of Maryland, and Jerrold
Nadler of New York fi rst introduced
the impeachment resolution on
January 11, hitting Trump for repeatedly
issuing “false statements
asserting that the presidential
election results were the product
of widespread fraud and should
not be accepted by the American
people or certifi ed by State or Federal
offi cials… He also willfully
made statements that, in context,
encouraged — and foreseeably resulted
in — lawless action at the
Capitol, such as: ‘If you don’t fi ght
like hell, you’re not going to have a
country anymore.'”
House Democrats further
charged that Trump “gravely endangered
the security of the United
States and its institutions of
government. 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.”
Democrats in the lower chamber
moved with unprecedented speed
to bring impeachment to the fl oor
in the days following the deadly
attack on the Capitol. The House
fi rst passed a resolution January
12 asking Vice President Pence to
invoke the 25th Amendment and
Out gay Congressmember David Cicilline of Rhode Island at the US Capitol on January 11.
A man carries a confederate fl ag into the US Capitol on January 6.
remove the president, but when
Pence dismissed that idea, lawmakers
moved ahead with impeachment.
Many out queer congressmembers
immediately called for impeachment
following the attack, which
left many lawmakers horrifi ed after
they described close encounters
with bigoted Trump supporters who
descended on the Capitol as Congress
prepared to certify the results
of the 2020 election.
Every out LGBTQ member of the
House joined Cicilline as co-sponsors
in the impeachment effort,
including Ritchie Torres, Mondaire
Jones, and Sean Patrick Maloney
of New York; Chris Pappas of New
Hampshire; Sharice Davids of
Kansas; Angie Craig of Minnesota;
Mark Takano of California; and
Mark Pocan of Wisconsin.
REUTERS/JOSHUA ROBERTS
REUTERS/MIKE THEILER
Torres — who just took offi ce in
the days ahead of the attack — offered
a brief but direct speech on
the House fl oor ahead of the impeachment
vote.
“The dangerous mob that Donald
Trump unleashed on the United
States Capitol represents a violent
assault on the separation of powers
and on the peaceful transfer
of power that we have long taken
for granted.,” Torres said. “The impeachment
of Donald Trump is not
politics but law, not passion but
reason, not vengeance but justice,
and we as the people’s representative
must rise to the challenge of
defending democraacy in the face
of its gravest threat and we will.”
The insurrectionists made their
way through police checkpoints,
vandalized the Capitol building,
ransacked offi ces, and shattered
POLITICS
windows in a chaotic scene that left
fi ve people dead and raised numerous
questions about why some law
enforcement offi cers allowed the
attackers to march into the heart
of the federal government. Many
who joined the mob were donning
racist apparel and some individuals
placed a noose on full display.
The few out members of Congress
who did not quickly jump
on board the impeachment train
eventually came around to it in a
matter of days. They were joined by
a long list of LGBTQ groups from
across the nation that demanded
action to oust the president immediately.
Those groups included
Athlete Ally, GLSEN, the Equality
Federation, GLAAD, Lambda Legal,
the National Black Justice Coalition,
SAGE, The National Center
for Transgender Equality, Transgender
Law Center, GLBTQ Legal
Advocates & Defenders (GLAD),
the National Center for Lesbian
Rights, the National LGBTQ Task
Force, and the Transgender Legal
Defense and Education Fund,
among countless others.
Some Republicans, meanwhile,
increasingly warmed up to the
idea of impeachment in the wake
of the attack, and the New York
Times reported that Senate Majority
Leader Mitch McConnell —
who will soon become the minority
leader — believes Trump committed
impeachable offenses and is
glad Democrats moved to impeach
him. Republican Congressmember
Liz Cheney of Wyoming, who holds
the third-highest position among
House GOP members, also voted
for impeachment despite representing
a state that overwhelmingly
voted for Trump.
The impeachment vote triggers a
Senate trial and the upper chamber
requires a two-thirds vote in order
to convict the president. Trump’s
fate in the Senate, which for the
time being remains in Republican
hands, is less certain.
McConnell has signaled his intention
to hold off on a Senate trial until
lawmakers return from recess, which
concludes one day before President-
Elect Joe Biden takes offi ce.
GayCityNews.com | January 14 - January 27, 2021 5
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