ATLANTA — The speed of the second impeachment of President Donald Trump was driven by the violent and deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol building one week ago.
The state of Georgia also played a key role.
In the single article of impeachment brought by Democrats on Wednesday, Georgia is the only state named.
"President Trump urged the Secretary of State of Georgia Brad Raffensperger to find enough votes to overturn the Georgia Presidential election results and threatened Secretary Raffensperger if he failed to do so," said U.S. House of Representatives Reading Clerk Susan Cole Wednesday as she formally read from the House floor the resolution to impeach Trump.
That claim marked the only reference to an individual state in the impeachment article.
The article is further explained in a supporting document filed by House Democrats from the House Judiciary Committee. In the document, Georgia is named 50 times across the document's 50 pages.
"President Trump was especially fixated on Georgia," is one quote in the document, introducing the president's false claims that he won the state of Georgia.
From the floor of the House, U.S. Rep. Carolyn Bordeaux, a Democrat elected in November to represent Georgia's 7th District, said Trump's claims about the election results in Georgia helped fuel the events on January 6 at the U.S. Capitol building.
"Despite three recounts and many investigations, the results are clear, Joe Biden won Georgia," Bordeaux said. "Our president used this lie to incite a violent mob to attack the Capitol."
Also quoted in the House document supporting impeachment, are the contents of a January 2 telephone call between the president and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
"I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have," the document quotes Trump as saying during the phone call.
The document states Trump threatened Raffensperger "with criminal penalties," if he failed to find the votes.
The document then continues on to detail Trump pressuring now-former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia BJay Pak.
Pak abruptly resigned one day before the Capitol riot, with the House document reading, "Mr. Pak was told by White House officials he needed to resign because the President was "furious" that Mr. Pak was not pursuing the President's groundless claims of widespread voter fraud in Georgia."
Also quoted in the references to Georgia, is Trump's speech in Dalton, Ga., on Jan. 4, one day before the U.S. Senate runoff races. The president campaigned in Dalton for the then-two Republican incumbent senators, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler.
Trump's speech took place two days before the violence in Washington.
"They're not taking this White House," the document quotes Trump as saying in Dalton before a crowd of supporters who responded in cheers. "We are going to fight like hell, I'll tell you right now."
Both Perdue and Loeffler lost their runoff races on Jan. 5.
"What happened on Wednesday, January 6th was pure anarchy," U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter (R-1st, Ga.) said on Wednesday from the House floor as he spoke in opposition of impeachment.
Carter, a Republican from Georgia's 1st District, said rioters must be held legally accountable for their actions at the Capitol, but he added impeaching the president would only further divide an already split country.
"This is a very serious and concerning effort during such a tense and fragile time in our country," Carter said.
Carter was joined in his opposition by fellow Georgia Republican Andrew Clyde (R - 9th, Ga.), newly-elected in November.
"I have no doubt that those who breached the Capitol will have due process and their day in court," Clyde said. "However, there will be no investigation in the People's House into whether the allegations against the president meets the criteria for a crime worthy of impeachment."