The Colorado delegation fell along party lines Wednesday as the House of Representatives voted to impeach President Donald Trump on charges he incited supporters a week ago into storming the Capitol to block Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s election win.

In brief, often heated statements during floor debate, Colorado’s House Democrats argued that lawmakers had a duty to defend the republic by holding Trump accountable for the deadly attack.

The state’s three House Republicans argued against the move, calling impeachment an obstacle to unifying the country.

The Democratic-controlled House sped toward approving the article of impeachment with unanimous support from Democrats and the support of a handful of Republicans, including No. 3 GOP leader Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming – making Trump the first president to be impeached twice.

The House resolution was passed 232-197 after 2 p.m. MST, with backing from 10 Republican lawmakers. 

“President Trump’s actions – encouraging, inciting a mob that stormed the United States Capitol, for the sole purpose of stopping the constitutionally mandated counting of electoral votes – cannot go unanswered by this body. He must be impeached,” said U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse, a Lafayette Democrat and one of nine House Democrats tapped to prosecute the case in the Senate trial.

“If Congress does not act, if we shrink from our constitutional responsibilities to defend our republic, it will undoubtedly undermine the vision of America, as ‘the last, best hope of earth’ as Abraham Lincoln so eloquently said, so many years ago.”

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland suggested Wednesday that the House could send the article to the GOP-controlled Senate right away, rather than delay in order to avoid overwhelming Biden’s initial agenda.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican reportedly open to considering impeachment, however, has said the Senate won’t convene before it’s scheduled to on Jan 19, just one day before Trump’s term expires.

U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, a Colorado Springs Republican and an honorary co-chair of Trump’s 2020 Colorado campaign, called the Democrats’ “hasty desire to impeach the president” a “travesty” in a statement.

“I condemn the actions of the individuals who stormed the Capitol. However, it is clear that President Trump did not incite this violence,” Lamborn said. “This is yet another political ploy by House Democrats who hate the President and will do everything in their power to silence the voices of millions of Americans who voted for him.”

U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, a Denver Democrat who will also serve as an impeachment manager, recalled that she was presiding as the House debated just over a year ago before lawmakers voted to impeach Trump for the first time. 

“And now, just one week ago, almost to the hour, I laid right there on the floor of the gallery above us,” DeGette said. “I heard gunshots in the speaker’s lobby and I heard the mob pounding on the door. And what they were trying to do – an angry mob incited by the president – they were trying to stop certification of a legitimate election.”

Referencing Trump’s acquittal by the Senate in last year’s impeachment trial on a mostly party-line vote, DeGette continued: “It’s clear the president learned nothing in the last year. Yesterday, the president said, again, he did nothing wrong. This man is dangerous. He has defied the Constitution. He has incited sedition and must be removed.”

U.S. Rep. Ken Buck, a Windsor Republican and chairman of the Colorado GOP, blasted the Democrats’ rush to impeach Trump in a matter of days.

“Speaker Pelosi gave members just two hours of debate to discuss these rushed articles of impeachment,” he said in a statement. “There were no testimonies under oath, witnesses, sober deliberation, or regular processes of House Judiciary Committee hearings. Speaker Pelosi’s rushed impeachment process undermines the constitutional process.”

Buck led a group of Republicans earlier this week calling on Biden to ask Pelosi to halt her plans to impeach Trump, arguing the move would be contrary to healing and unifying the nation in the wake of the Capitol attack – a suggestion rejected by some supporters of impeachment as giving Trump a pass on a violent assault on the legislative branch.

Arguing on the House floor that Trump didn’t incite the rioters, Buck unfurled a list of grievances Trump supporters have been nursing against Democrats bent on impeaching the president since he took office. 

Said Buck: “Americans were frustrated when they learned that the FBI was investigating the Trump campaign. They were frustrated to learn that the Obama administration and the DNC had created this false Russian hoax against the Trump campaign and the administration. They were frustrated when the inauguration of the president was boycotted by over 40 members of the Democrat members of this House. They were frustrated to read in the Washington Post the day after the inauguration, ‘Let the impeachment begin.'”

U.S. Rep. Jason Crow, an Aurora attorney and Army combat veteran, invoked the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, when he was among lawmakers briefly trapped in the gallery above the House floor.

“Last week I stood in that gallery to defend this chamber against the violent mob called here by Donald Trump,” said Crow, one of the seven House Democrats who prosecuted last year’s case against Trump in the Senate trial.

“I have dedicated my life to the defense of our nation, and Donald Trump is a risk to all that I love. Some of my Republican colleagues are afraid of the consequences of an impeachment vote. But this Congress sends our young men and women to war everyday. I’m not asking you to storm the beaches of Normandy, but only show a fraction of the courage we ask of our troops everyday,” Crow said.

“Leadership is hard. It’s time to impeach.”

U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, the freshman Republican from Rifle, slammed Democrats in a fiery speech.

“I call bullcrap when I hear the Democrats demanding unity,” Boebert said. “Sadly, they’re only unified in hate.”

Boebert, who has drawn harsh criticism for tweets she sent before and during last week’s Capitol siege, said she “denounce[d] the recent violence on the Capitol, just as I opposed the previous impeachment and the violence we’ve all witnessed all summer long across our great country.”

“Make no mistake here, the hypocrisy of the left is on full display” she said. “Where’s the accountability for the left after encouraging and normalizing violence? Rather than actually helping American people in this time, we start impeachments that further divide our country.”

Democratic U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter of Arvada, serving his eighth term, said in a statement explaining his vote to impeach Trump that this was “one of the most solemn weeks” of his congressional tenure.

“I couldn’t imagine what would prompt me to pursue another impeachment of Donald Trump. And then a violent mob attacked one of the most sacred symbols of our democracy, the U.S. Capitol, intent on destruction and harm,” Perlmutter said.

“Even with only seven days left of the Trump presidency, we must always ensure our president will preserve, protect and defend the U.S. Constitution, as is required of the oath of office. President Trump has shown he will not and cannot be trusted to uphold his oath. He has damaged the Constitution and damaged America. Each and every one of us has a responsibility to reduce the continued threats of violence on fellow Americans and ensure the government can transition peacefully.”