[ad_1]
A growing number of US lawmakers, including Democratic leaders in both houses of Congress, are calling for Donald Trump to be removed from power by invoking the 25th Amendment to the US Constitution, which allows the vice president and the cabinet to declare Trump no suitable for the position. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that if Trump is not removed from Pence and the cabinet, the Democratic majority in the House will begin impeachment proceedings, reports CNN.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer again denounced the assault on the Capitol building by Trump supporters on Thursday and demanded the removal of the incumbent president, even though he only has 12 days left in office. .
“This president shouldn’t be in office for another day,” Schumer said. His call was joined by Nancy Pelosi, the leader of the House of Representatives, who directly asked Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution and remove Trump from power.
Read also: Behind the scenes of the most shocking day in recent American history. Donald Trump, listed as a “monster” by White House officials
Pelosi said otherwise, “Congress is ready to move forward with the impeachment procedure.” Most of the lawmakers who have raised the issue of Trump’s impeachment are Democrats, but among them are some Republicans who have criticized the president.
What does it mean to invoke Amendment 25 and the impeachment procedure
Amendment 25 to the United States Constitution regulates the succession of the president and the manner in which he holds the office of president or interim president in the event that his vacancy is due to death or inability to perform his functions. Among the provisions is the clause according to which the vice president and the cabinet can, by majority vote, declare that the president is unable to perform his functions and remove him from office. In that case, Mike Pence would become President or Acting President, depending on the reason for Amendment 25.
The impeachment or impeachment procedure is a procedure enshrined in the Constitution of the United States by which Congress can, after an investigation, charge an executive officer with “felonies and serious offenses” and then remove him after impeachment. . The prerogative of the prosecution belongs to the House of Representatives, while the prerogative to try the case belongs to the Senate.
It presupposes a broad agreement of the political forces because the impeachment requires the vote of a two-thirds majority of the senators, which guarantees that the decision will be made after a bipartisan or multiparty agreement.
Donald Trump was previously impeached by the House of Representatives earlier this year, but was quickly acquitted by the Republican-controlled Senate and Mitch McConnell. A possible impeachment of Trump in the next 12 days, if the second impeachment proceedings were to begin, would be based on Republican votes in the Senate, in the context where Democrats only have 46 of the 67 votes needed.
Signs Trump Has Lost His Cabinet’s Confidence
Following Wednesday’s violent episode, relations between Trump and Pence are frozen. Trump viewed Pence’s decision not to go beyond his formal role in validating Congress as treason, though the latter had no authority to decide for himself who would be the next president. Before the procedure, Pence wrote in a letter to his colleagues in Congress that he did not intend to go beyond his formal role and that the US Constitution did not give him the authority to change the outcome of the elections.
At the same time, the vice president would not be satisfied with Trump’s attitude and behavior. Sources in the vice president’s entourage say Trump’s goal was to make Pence a scapegoat for the trumpeters, who now see him as the sole culprit in Trump leaving office on January 20.
Pence is also unhappy that Trump has put him under public pressure and then abandoned him in front of his angry supporters in Congress. He was with his wife and daughter in the building, and Trump-instigated and radicalized hooligans were shouting in the hallways, “Where’s Mike Pence?”, Causing all three to panic in those moments of chaos.
Additionally, several members of President Donald Trump’s team have resigned or announced that they will resign, protesting their behavior during the violence on Capitol Hill. The most recent resignation is White House deputy national security adviser Matt Pottinger.
Among those who announced their immediate departure from the president’s staff were Sarah Matthews, head of press relations, Rickie Niceta, a member of the events team, Robert O’Brien, the security adviser and the deputy chief of staff. of the White House, Chris Liddell.
According to sources cited by journalists accredited by the White House, President Trump “lost control”; it was inaccessible during the day and he watched the Capitol events on television. In addition, one of the journalists quotes a source close to Donald Trump, who told him that the president “lost his mind” (“out of his mind “).
However, it is unclear if Pence could unite enough secretaries to oust Trump or if he would be willing to do so.
Editor: Adrian Dumitru
