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WASHINGTON: As Democrats in the House of Representatives on Friday (January 8) prepared to impeach President Donald Trump again if he doesn’t resign, their leader Nancy Pelosi spoke with the top US general about how to prevent a “deranged” Trump from agreeing to the nuclear launch. codes in the last days of his tenure.
The extraordinary events came two days after Trump urged thousands of supporters to march on the U.S. Capitol, sparking a chaotic scene in which crowds stormed the building, sending lawmakers underground and they left a police officer and four others dead in their wake.
“This unhinged president’s situation couldn’t be more dangerous,” Pelosi said in a statement, just before a conference call with other Democrats to discuss whether to impeach Trump. “If the president does not leave office imminently and voluntarily, Congress will proceed with our action.”
Pelosi told members that she had received assurances from Army General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that safeguards exist in case Trump tried to launch a nuclear weapon, according to a source who was listening to the call.
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While US presidents have access to the codes necessary to fire nuclear weapons 24 hours a day, no senior military or national security official has publicly expressed any concerns about Trump’s state of mind regarding nuclear weapons.
Milley’s office said Pelosi had initiated the call and that the general “responded to their questions about the nuclear command authority process.”
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Meanwhile, most Democrats appeared ready to initiate an impeachment process if Vice President Mike Pence and Trump’s cabinet refuse to invoke the 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which allows them to impeach a president. that it cannot fulfill its functions.
Pence opposes such a move, an adviser told Reuters on Thursday.
At least one Senate Republican, Ben Sasse of Nebraska, said he would consider supporting an impeachment process.
Sasse, a frequent critic of Trump, told CBS News on Friday that he would “definitely consider” any article of impeachment because the president “disregarded his oath of office.”
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Even if the House removed Trump on such short notice, the decision to remove him would fall to the Republican-controlled Senate, which acquitted him once. Given that Trump’s term ends on January 20 and the Senate is scheduled to be in recess until January 19, the prospects of an actual overthrow seem unlikely.
The impeachment of a United States president requires a two-thirds majority in the Senate. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has not commented on a possible impeachment.
President-elect Joe Biden blamed Trump for inciting violence on Wednesday, but made it clear that he will not intervene in the impeachment. Pelosi told members that she would speak with Biden on Friday afternoon, the source said.
An unusually subdued Trump on Thursday night finally denounced the violence in a video in which he also promised to ensure a smooth transition to the Biden administration.
However, by Friday morning he had returned to a more familiar and boxing tone. On Twitter, he praised his followers and said: “You will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form !!!”
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The FBI and prosecutors are investigating, arresting, and criminally charging individuals who participated in the violence on Capitol Hill.
Trump also confirmed that he would not be attending Biden’s inauguration, building on a time-honored tradition in which the outgoing president typically escorts his successor to Capitol Hill for the ceremony. The practice is considered an important part of the peaceful transfer of power.
The House indicted Trump in December 2019 for pressuring the Ukrainian president to investigate Biden, but the Senate acquitted him in February 2020. Only two other US presidents have been indicted, and neither has been indicted twice.
Democrats will take tight control of the Senate after winning two runoff elections in Georgia on Tuesday, but new senators will not be sworn in until the state certifies their results later this month.
