Photos: YouTube
The calls on Capitol Hill are growing to impeach and remove Donald Trump from office because of his incitement of Wednesday’s assault and coup attempt on Congress by his MAGA supporters.
Over 200 members in the House of Representatives are now said to support a second impeachment of Donald Trump. Several important developments have recently occurred that pushed the move toward impeachment forward.
On Thursday, Massachusetts Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07) joined Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (MI-13) and Reps. Jamaal Bowman (NY-16), Cori Bush (MO-01), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14), and Ilhan Omar (MN-05) in sending a letter to Congressional leadership urging them to reconvene both chambers and immediately begin impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump, who incited a mob of his supporters to storm and breach the US Capitol Wednesday.
“The attack on our nation’s Capitol yesterday was a result of his incitement, and we cannot go home while he remains in the highest office in our land, threatening our elected officials, our nation’s Capitol, and our very democracy,” the lawmakers wrote. “The remaining two weeks of his presidency may prove to be detrimental to our nation—every day that he remains in office is a serious threat to our democracy and our national security. We cannot risk his unhinged behavior any longer.”
Members of Trump’s cabinet have reportedly discussed invoking the 25th Amendment. Lawmakers including GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger and Senate Majority Leader Schumer have also voiced support for doing so. Others have called for impeachment, including Reps. Pressley, Tlaib, Bowman, Bush, Ocasio-Cortez, and Omar; they want Congress to use its constitutional authority to remove the President immediately.
“We will set a dangerous precedent if there are no consequences for a sitting U.S. President inciting violence as a last-ditch effort to remain in power against the will of the American people who voted him out of office. Congress must reconvene immediately in order to begin proceedings to remove Donald J. Trump from office,” the letter concluded.
On Thursday, California Congresswoman Karen Bass delivered a blistering statement denouncing Trump and supporting a second impeachment, while also invoking the prospect that Vice-President Mike Pence, and other members of White House cabinet, should invoke the 25th Amendment, to deem Trump unfit to serve out the last twelve days of his term.
Bass said: “Donald Trump should be removed from office today. That can happen one of two ways.
“First, Vice President Pence can step up and get the President’s Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment. Unfortunately, I believe members of the Cabinet are as corrupt and unpatriotic as the president and, though the president is clearly unfit for office, they lack both the courage and the commitment to our Constitution to take the necessary action to invoke the 25th Amendment.
“If the 25th amendment is not invoked, Donald Trump should be impeached for the second time. Unfortunately for our democracy, actual removal of the president would require a conviction vote from 14 Senators who belong to the same party that literally tried to overturn the results of our presidential election yesterday. I believe that they, too, will lack both the courage and the commitment to our Constitution to take the necessary action to convict.”
Also yesterday, House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler called for the impeachment of Trump, and urged Vice-President Mike Pence “to invoke the 25th Amendment and remove the President from office because he is unfit to serve.”
