U.S. President Donald Trump deserved to be impeached, again — this time for his sustained and unprecedented attempt to invalidate the results of the election and incite the worst assault on the peaceful transition of power our country has ever seen.

The most important thing now is for a Senate vote to happen as quickly as possible, so that the specter of this president and all the ugly division he represents does not hang over the new Biden administration.

We must wash our hands of the Trump presidency and be done with it — the sooner the better.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who is reportedly open to convicting Trump in an impeachment trial, has said that he will not bring the chamber back into session until Jan. 19 — perhaps because he believes the extra time will lead more Republicans to join him. Regardless, the next day — come hell or high water — Trump will no longer be president, so the outcome of a trial is actually less important than the vote, for two reasons.

First: The Biden administration must have the chance to start with a clean slate. That can’t happen until we put the vote behind us.

Second: The public deserves to know where their representatives stand on this historic matter — with the Constitution or the con man who subverts it? With democracy and the rule of law, or with dictatorship and mob rule? Let’s call the roll, without delay, and let the public serve as the final jury in 2022.

Michael R. Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News, and served as mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013.