US Democrats began the process of impeaching President Donald Trump for a second time on Monday if Vice President Mike Pence and the cabinet do not remove him from office.
Democrats introduced a resolution calling on Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment of the Constitution and remove Trump from the White House.
Republicans blocked an immediate vote on the resolution and Democrats followed up by introducing an article of impeachment of Trump for "incitement of insurrection" over his role in Wednesday's storming of the US Capitol.
Trump has been largely silent in recent days -- making few statements and holding no news conferences. Twitter, his favoured public platform, has banned him for language that could incite violence.
He plans to travel to Texas on Tuesday in one of his final trips as president, reportedly to claim success in delivering on his pledge to build a border wall to keep immigrants from Mexico out of the US.
As Democrats prepared to act, the US Capitol building was open to lawmakers and staff but under tight security and ringed by a metal fence after Wednesday's assault by Trump supporters that left five people dead.
Historic second impeachment Inside, some windows...
