[ad_1]
Friday, January 8, 2021
Possible impeachment
Pence won’t hasten Trump’s demise
After his supporters storm the Capitol, the president of the United States must fear an early end of his term. The calls for impeachment in both political fields are strong. However, his disgraced vice president will not help.
After the storm of the hundreds of supporters of US President Donald Trump on Capitol Hill, more and more comrades left him. Two of his cabinet ministers have already resigned in response to the scandalous incident and the president’s handling of it. A few days before the end of his term, calls for an early overthrow of Trump are growing louder. However, you no longer have to fear impeachment.
Because US Vice President Mike Pence refuses, according to reports from the “Business Insider” and “New York Times” newspapers, to impeach Trump on the basis of the 25th amendment to the constitution. Democrats and some Republicans had asked Pence after the storm of Trump supporters to relieve the president voted less than two weeks before leaving office.
Ability to quickly shut down Trump
Article 25 allows the president to be declared incapable of “exercising the rights and duties of the office.” Vice President Pence and most of the key cabinet members would have to make such a statement. Then he would have to report this to Congress. The president could file an objection, which in turn could be rejected. Then it would be the turn of Congress. Pence would be acting president until a decision is made there. In parliament, the two-thirds majority required for Trump’s impeachment is not predictable. Congress would have 21 days to vote, until Trump’s successor, Joe Biden, was sworn in on January 20.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Democrat Nancy Pelosi, and the leader of the Democrats in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, had asked the Pence / Trump cabinet to remove the president for “inciting the insurrection.” US Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had also discussed the possibility of impeaching Trump, CNBC reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
“This president shouldn’t stay in office another day,” Schumer said. “The fastest and most effective way to remove this president from office today would be for the vice president to activate the 25th amendment immediately.” Trump’s impeachment was “of the utmost urgency,” Pelosi said: “This man is fatal to our democracy.” Trump instigated an “armed uprising against the United States” and an “attempted coup.” Like Schumer, he urged Trump’s Congressman Mike Pence and the government cabinet to immediately activate Amendment 25 to the United States Constitution, which can declare a president incapable of holding office.
“Every day can be a horror show”
If that doesn’t happen, Congress will initiate impeachment proceedings against Trump, Pelosi said: In the last 13 days of his term, “this dangerous man could cause more damage to our country.” Pelosi called Trump a “dangerous man” and warned that he could cause more damage in his remaining days in office. “It’s only 13 days, but any day can be a horror show for America.” Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger also called for the application of Amendment 25: This “nightmare” must end, he said. “The president is not healthy.”
Trump is accused of having delivered a speech encouraging his followers to move to the Capitol. He later commented hauntingly benevolent about the chaos that has so far killed five people. Former Attorney General William Barr clearly condemned the president and called his behavior “treason.” “Orchestrating a mob to pressure Congress is unforgivable,” Barr said in a statement to Fox News. “The behavior of the president yesterday was a betrayal of his office and his supporters.”
“If you let us down …”
Trump had already faced regular impeachment proceedings in Congress during his tenure – last February he was acquitted by a majority of his Republicans in the Senate. Trump would be the first president of the United States to face two of those trials.
Pence had always been loyal to Trump. More recently, however, he also lost favor with the president-elect: I hope he will join us, “Trump said in a campaign speech in Georgia.” If he lets us down, I won’t like him so much anymore. “Trump had asked Pence: in his role as president of the Senate to torpedo the verification of the election results. In an open letter to all congressmen Wednesday night, German time, however, Pence had made it clear that he could not do what the president asked him to do.
Although he shared the concerns of “millions of Americans” about the implementation of the elections, Pence wrote in the letter. But, Pence added, “the presidency belongs to the American people and to them alone.” If there are doubts about the result of the elections, it is the job of the electorate to clarify these doubts and not the government, the vice president wrote. “I don’t think the founders of our country intended to give the vice president unilateral power to decide which votes are counted and which are not.”
