Junior Gabriela Marcucci felt that the recent decision to impeach Pres. Donald Trump a second time was extremely justified given the events at the Capitol on Jan. 6. “Encouraging a coup to get what he wanted is wrong,” Marcucci said. “That’s treason and an abuse of power.” 

The riot in question ensued after a speech made by Trump, encouraging his followers to “march over to the Capitol building and make [their] voices heard,” using false claims about a “stolen” election to incite the crowd. During the riot, Trump stayed silent, and when he finally did make a statement he praised the extremists by saying “go home, we love you, you’re very special” and that he sympathized with how the protestors were feeling. 

Trump’s remarks before and during the failed coup could hold him legally accountable for the violence that took place at the Capitol. The House of Representatives called on Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment and remove Trump from office, but ultimately he did not. After the attack on the Capitol more Republicans in Congress said they intended to vote to impeach Trump, and the House moved forward with an impeachment vote Jan. 13.   

Not everyone supported this decision to impeach Trump so late in his term, however. Junior Suzy Malumyan felt that impeachment was not the right course of action. “I don’t think it makes sense since he was about to finish his term anyways,” Malumyan said. “It was pointless because he had just a week left.”

House speaker Nancy Pelosi started the House debate by calling Trump a “clear and present danger” to the nation. Democrats charged Trump with “incitement of insurrection” for his role in the events at the Capitol. The Democrats were joined by members of the Republican party, many of whom had previously supported Trump. 

AP U.S. History teacher Eric Kursinski felt a second impeachment could have negative effects on the president’s legacy. “He’s going down in the history books as the first president to be impeached twice,” Kursinski said. “It’s really unfortunate that that’s how his presidency ended when he started off with a lot of hope in his heart of how he would make America great again.”

Looking ahead, it is up to House speaker Nancy Pelosi to now send the articles of impeachment over to the Senate. Once the Senate receives the letters, the leader of the Senate starts the process of having a trial. If the Senate votes to convict, they would then have to take a second vote after conviction to determine if Trump would be barred from ever holding a federal office again. In this case, a two-thirds vote would not be necessary. Only a majority of the Senate would be needed to ban him from running for office in the future.