Pelosi: Trump's Cabinet must remove him — and if they don't, we will
The House speaker said she’s ready to move on impeaching Trump again if the 25th Amendment is not invoked.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday said Donald Trump must be removed from office, saying that if Vice President Mike Pence and Trump’s Cabinet don’t do it, Congress will.
Pelosi (D-CA) cited Trump’s incitement of “an armed insurrection against America” as the reason Trump must be immediately removed.
“In calling for this seditious act, the president has committed an unspeakable assault on our nation and our people. I join the Senate Democratic leader in calling on the vice president to remove this president by immediately invoking the 25th Amendment,” Pelosi said Thursday afternoon at a fiery news conference, in which she condemned the Republican attempt to overturn the election and the terrorist attack on the Capitol one day earlier that Trump himself incited.
“If the vice president and cabinet do not act, the Congress may be prepared to move forward with impeachment,” Pelosi added.
Asked about timing, Pelosi said “we would hope” to have a response from Pence today about whether the Cabinet will remove Trump. Pence would have to invoke the 25th Amendment, a Constitutional failsafe that allows the vice president and a majority of Cabinet officials to declare the president unfit to serve, thus removing his powers.
“While it’s only 13 days left, any day could be a horror show for America,” Pelosi said, stressing the urgency to remove Trump from office.
She later added, “This man is deadly — to our democracy, to our people,” and cited fear that Trump would even incite violence during President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration.
“In terms of the inauguration, I don’t know if it could be made any smaller, but I don’t trust whatever the president might have in mind because I think he’s a very dangerous man,” Pelosi sasid.
Pelosi joins soon-to-be Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer in supporting a second Trump impeachment.
Earlier Thursday, Schumer also called for Trump to be removed via the 25th Amendment, also saying that if Pence and the rest of Trump’s Cabinet do not act, Congress will.
“The quickest and most effective way — it can be done today — to remove this president from office would be for the Vice President to immediately invoke the 25th amendment,” Schumer said in a statement. “If the Vice President and Cabinet refuse to stand up, Congress should reconvene to impeach the president.”
More than 72 House Democrats have now signed on to impeach Trump, according to a joint tally from Daily Kos Elections and the American Independent Foundation, a number that’s steadily grown throughout the day and may grow even more now that the leadership of the Democratic Party is on board.
It’s unclear whether there are enough Senate Republicans who would vote to remove Trump from office if Democrats impeach Trump for a second time.
Removal from office requires a two-thirds majority.
Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.
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