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On January 6, as Congress convened to officially certify results showing that Democrat Joe Biden had won the United States presidential election — with 306 Electoral College votes to 232 for President Donald Trump — pro-Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, unleashing violence and vandalism, and sending lawmakers into lockdown.
Soon after, there were widespread calls for the president to resign or be removed from office by his cabinet, or by Congress for his failure to protect democracy and carry out the duties of the office. What followed exactly one week later was an unprecedented second impeachment by the House of Representatives of a U.S. president, on the single article of “incitement of insurrection” for Trump’s role in provoking the mob that besieged the seat of American democracy.
Now that Joe Biden has been officially sworn in as the 46th President of the United States, Harvard Law School scholars continue to weigh in on the electoral and constitutional issues that led up to the assault on the Capitol, the events that have followed, and what it all means for the future of democracy in America.