Majority of voters say Trump impeachment will further divide Americans

President Joe Biden has been preaching "unity" among Americans of all political parties for months. On Inauguration Day, he called for togetherness, "Today, on this January day, my whole soul is in this: bringing America together, uniting our people, uniting our nation. And I ask every American to join me in this cause." But it appears that Democratic members of Congress didn't get the memo about unity, because they are impeaching former President Donald Trump, a measure that most Americans deem divisive.

A new Rasmussen Reports poll found that 57% of likely voters said the impeachment of Trump would further divide Americans. The survey discovered that 19% believe the impeachment trial will unify Americans, and 20% said it wouldn't have any effect on the country's cohesion.

The poll also found that 50% of likely voters said the Senate should not convict the former President Trump of "high crimes and misdemeanors," and 45% said he should be convicted.

On Jan. 13, the House of Representatives voted 232-197 to impeach Trump on the charge of "incitement of insurrection" for his actions surrounding the storming of the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6. The impeachment article was delivered to the Senate on Monday.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said the upcoming Senate impeachment trial of Trump is already "dead on arrival." He claimed that 45 Republican senators have determined that the proceedings are unconstitutional.

"We had 45 people, 45 Republican senators say that the whole charade is unconstitutional," Paul told Fox News host Maria Bartiromo earlier this week. "So, what does that mean? It means ... the trial is dead on arrival."

"There will be a show," Paul said. "There will be a parade of partisanship, but the Democrats really will not be able to win. They will be able to play a partisan game that they wish to play. But it's all over."

Harvard Law School professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz told Glenn Beck that the impeachment against Trump is "unconstitutional."

"The Constitution says the purpose of impeachment is to remove somebody," Dershowitz said on BlazeTV's "Glenn Beck Program." "He [Trump] is out of office. There's nothing left to do. It doesn't say you can impeach him to disqualify him for the future. It says, if you remove him you can then add disqualification, but you can't just impeach somebody to disqualify them."

No impeachment has ever been brought against a president who is out of office.

Democrats need at least 17 GOP senators to vote with them to reach the two-thirds threshold to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial. If the former president is convicted, it will allow the Senate to permanently disqualify Trump from holding "any office of honor, trust or profit under the United States."

The Senate impeachment trial is set to kick off the week of Feb. 8.