Trump impeachment: Democrats promise swift step toward impeachment if 25th Amendment initiative fails



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If the resolution is not passed by unanimous consent, and most likely not likely to offer Republican resistance, then the measure will go to a full vote Tuesday.

The resolution will ask Pence to respond within 24 hours and, if not, the House would proceed to impeach the president.

“Next,” Pelosi said in a letter to her Democratic colleagues, “we will proceed to bring the impeachment legislation to the Chamber.”

“In protecting our Constitution and our Democracy, we will act urgently, because this President represents an imminent threat to both. As the days go by, the horror of the ongoing assault on our democracy perpetrated by this President intensifies and so does the immediate need for action, “said Pelosi.

House Democrats have rallied quickly around an impeachment resolution in the days following the Capitol riots where five people were killed, including a U.S. Capitol police officer.

Democratic Representatives David Cicilline of Rhode Island, Jamie Raskin of Maryland and Ted Lieu of California will present the impeachment resolution during the House pro forma session on Monday, which includes an article accusing Trump of “incitement to insurrection.”

Cicilline tweeted late Sunday that the resolution now has more than 200 co-sponsors, nearly all from the Democratic group.

House Democrats are still debating whether a vote to impeach Trump could be Tuesday or Wednesday, according to his aides.

Pelosi said in an interview on CBS’s “60 Minutes” Sunday night that she liked the idea of ​​invoking the 25th Amendment “because it gets rid of it,” but explained that “one of the motivations people have to advocate for impeachment “is to prevent Trump from returning to office.

“There is strong support in Congress to impeach the president a second time,” he said.

The House can wait to send any article to the Senate.

House Majority Whip James Clyburn said early Sunday House Democrats could wait until after President-elect Joe Biden’s first 100 days in office to send any articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump to the Senate, a move that would give the incoming president time to address his agenda in Congress before the start of a time-consuming trial.

“We will take the vote that we should take in the House, and (Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi) will make the determination of when is the best time to get that vote and get managers appointed and move that legislation to the Senate.” Clyburn told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union.”

“As it happens, if you don’t get there for 100 days, you could – let’s give President-elect Biden the 100 days he needs to get his schedule in motion, and maybe we’ll send the articles out sometime after that,” the Democrat added. from South Carolina.

House Democratic leaders grapple with the ramification of impeachment in Biden's early days

Clyburn’s comments come as Democrats grapple with how impeachment of Trump for the second time could affect Biden’s early days in office, as he is working to get the administration’s appointments approved in the Senate and address the issues. legislative priorities, such as another coronavirus relief package. Meanwhile, aides to the incoming president are working behind the scenes with Pelosi and others to keep Congress from getting bogged down with impeachment during their first days in office.

House Democrats, in a call that Pelosi made Saturday night with her leadership team, discussed the option of impeaching Trump this week and waiting until later to send the article of impeachment to the Senate to delay. the trial until after the first days of the Biden presidency, according to the Democrats in the party leadership.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell previously made clear in a memorandum that even if the House moved in the next few days to impeach Trump, the Senate would not return to session before January 19. That would place the start of the trial on January 20. Biden’s inauguration date.

From there, the Senate is virtually incapable of taking action other than trial to completion, as was evident during Trump’s first impeachment trial.

By impeaching and impeaching Trump, even at this last stage of his term, the Senate could later vote to disqualify him from returning to federal office, taking extraordinary action against a former president.

Biden’s aides work to ensure impeachment doesn’t become a distraction

While Biden has repeatedly said that it is up to Congress to decide how to sanction Trump for his role in instigating the violent attack on Capitol Hill, CNN has learned that his advisers are working intensively behind the scenes with the Democratic leadership in hopes of finding a middle ground. that will not hamper your new administration.

Waiting to send any articles to the Senate is one of the ideas being discussed by advisers to the president-elect, although advisers say other ideas have been debated this weekend, including censorship of Trump in a move that could attract more bipartisan support. . than the prosecution could.

Doing nothing at all and allowing the last days of Trump’s presidency to expire without congressional punishment is not being discussed.

“The train left the station under impeachment,” an official close to Biden told CNN. “Trying to stop him would not only fail, but it would put Biden on the wrong foot with progressives and most Democrats across the party.”

Talks between Biden and Pelosi and many of their respective advisers have been going on throughout the weekend.

Biden is set to present more details of his financial aid package this week in Wilmington, Delaware, where his advisers say he will implore Congress to act quickly to pass the bill as one of the first acts of his presidency.

“That bill cannot and should not be delayed due to impeachment in the Senate,” said an official close to Biden.

A current of Republicans supports the impeachment of Trump

Already, several Republicans in Congress have joined with Democrats in making it clear that they want Trump to leave office, although not all agree that impeachment is the right choice.

Toomey says Trump should resign and could face 'criminal liability'
Sen. Pat Toomey told Tapper on Sunday that he believes Trump should resign. The Pennsylvania Republican, who is not running for re-election in 2022, is now the second Republican senator to call for Trump’s resignation. He had previously said that he thought Trump “committed indictable crimes,” but that he wasn’t sure removing him so close to the end of his term was the correct course of action.
Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski said Friday that the president should step down, telling Trump’s Anchorage Daily News: “I want him out. He’s done enough damage.”

Representative Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, meanwhile, has supported the invocation of the 25th Amendment.

This story was updated with additional details on Sunday.

CNN’s Phil Mattingly, Manu Raju, Kate Sullivan and Nicky Robertson contributed to this report.

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