Milestone Monday
Impeachment Redux
On this day, January 13, 2021, Donald Trump was impeached for a second time, facing a charge of incitement of insurrection in connection with the attack on the United States Capitol that occurred just a week earlier on January 6. Trump’s second impeachment was unprecedented in U.S. history. He became the first president to be impeached twice. While the event was historically significant, it also became the subject of pointed commentary and criticism.
Following the impeachment, the House of Representatives gathered to discuss and vote on the articles of impeachment, which saw a significant number of bipartisan votes. A group of ten Republicans broke ranks to support the impeachment, highlighting a rift within the GOP over Trump's behavior and influence. The Senate trial that followed included intense debates and emotional testimonies, focusing on the implications of the Capitol riot and the dangers of political violence. Ultimately, Trump was acquitted by the Senate, not reaching the two-thirds majority required for a conviction. The aftermath of the impeachment led to widespread discussions about accountability, the state of democracy in the United States, and the responsibility of leaders to uphold the Constitution.
To observe this occasion, we included images from:
Bury My Heart at Chuck E. Cheese’s (University of Nebraska Press, 2019) by Tiffany Midge, a Native American poet, editor, and author. The book includes a foreword by Geary Hobson, a scholar, editor, and writer of fiction and poetry. The featured poem is titled Ars Poetica by Donald Trump.
Twitter FEED (Grand Climacteric Publishing, 2017) by Barbara Ciurej and Lindsay Lochman. The work is “a compilation of Tweets excerpted from the Twitter account of a rogue White House Senior Advisor (@RogueSNRadvisor) chronicling Donald Trump’s fast-food binges in response to the stresses of his first presidency.”
Masquerades & Misdemeanors [Hartford Avenue Poets] (Pebblebrook Press), 2013, a collection of poems by Milwaukee area poets. The poem featured is Donald Trump Sr. by Mark Zimmermann. He serves on the Wisconsin Poet Laureate Commission and is a member of the Hartford Avenue Poets.
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-Melissa, Special Collections Graduate Intern