Every Democrat from Brooklyn voted to impeach President Donald Trump for the second time, leaving Republican Nicole Malliotakis as the only member of Kings County’s Congressional delegation to vote against the indictment.
Members of the nation’s lower legislative body casted their historic votes to impeach the president for the second time just days after a violent mob stormed the US Capitol building, incited by Trump’s unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud in crucial swing states.
The move marks the first time in American history that any president has been impeached twice during their term.
The article of impeachment — supported by all Democrats and a handful of Republicans — alleges that Trump had spurred the insurrection upon the Capitol a week ago, in which thousands of his supporters breached the heart of American democracy, smashing windows, vandalizing property and getting into physical clashes with Capitol Police officers. Five people, including a Capitol Police officer, died as a result.
Eleven of New York City’s 12 Members of Congress voted to impeach the president again; the lone holdout was Nicole Malliotakis of southern Brooklyn and Staten Island, the only Republican in the city’s delegation.
Brooklyn Rep. Hakeem Jeffries took to social media Wednesday to say, “Today the House will impeach President Trump. For a second time. To protect the safety and well-being of the American people.”
Brooklyn Congressman Jerrold Nadler, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee and served as a manager over Trump’s first impeachment trial last winter, presided over the Democratic side of Wednesday’s debate.
Nadler said Trump “unleashed the force of a mob on this, the People’s House” and “encouraged that attack with the explicit intent to disrupt a joint session of Congress, an attack that threatened the safety of the Vice President, the Speaker of the House, and the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, the next three officers in the line of succession.”
Malliotakis, meanwhile, voted against the measure, claiming voter fraud occurred in Pennsylvania and Arizona, and referring to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s remarks after President George W. Bush’s reelection in the 2004 national election.
“It is the duty of Congress to oversee the certification of electoral votes and taking the lead of @SpeakerPelosi in 2005, have robust and respectful debate. It is not our duty to simply serve as rubber stamps,” she tweeted.
Trump will almost certainly remain in office until the end of his term on Jan. 20, as the impeachment will require a two-thirds majority in the Republican-dominated US Senate, where the vast majority of Republicans oppose the president’s removal.
Additional reporting by Robert Pozarycki
