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WASHINGTON – Democrats pledged to initiate legal proceedings on Monday (January 11) in their bid to remove President Donald Trump from office.
This comes in the wake of last week’s attack on the Capitol by a violent mob of his supporters.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi laid out her strategy in a letter to Democrats on Sunday (January 10), telling them that the Democratic-controlled House will first issue an ultimatum to Vice President Mike Pence to use his constitutional power. to force Trump to leave office.
Mr. Pence can do this by invoking Amendment 25, which allows him and the cabinet to remove the president from office by declaring him unfit to perform the functions of his office.
If Pence doesn’t respond within 24 hours, Democrats will proceed with impeachment legislation, Pelosi said.
He vowed to act urgently to protect the US Constitution and democracy, calling Trump “an imminent threat” to both.
“As the days go by, the horror of this continuing assault on our democracy by this President intensifies and so does the immediate need for action,” he wrote in the letter.
Last Wednesday’s (January 6) attack on the Capitol left five dead, including a police officer. Another policeman later died by suicide.
The assault, which occurred as Congress was in the midst of certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, is being branded an attack on America’s democracy by both Democrats and Republicans.
More critics accuse Trump of inciting the attack by falsely telling his supporters that the election was rigged against him.
House Democrats will first seek to pass a resolution, by unanimous consent, urging Pence to act.
If a legislator objects to the resolution, and some Republicans are likely to do so, the House will vote and pass the resolution on Tuesday (January 12).
Democrats are gathering the numbers they need to impeach Trump and they are likely to be successful.
Democratic Congressman David Cicilline said on Twitter that the impeachment article written by him and other lawmakers had 210 co-sponsors as of Sunday night, close to a simple majority of the 435 members of the House.
What happens next is more murky. House Majority Whip James Clyburn told television networks in an interview Sunday that they can wait until Trump’s term ends on January 20 to send the articles of impeachment to the Senate.
“Let’s give President-elect Biden the 100 days he needs to get his agenda in motion,” Clyburn, the third-highest-ranking Democrat in the House, told CNN. “And maybe we will ship the items after that.”
The Senate will decide whether to convict Trump or acquit him of impeachment charges. Trump is unlikely to be convicted by the Senate, as this requires a supermajority.
However, if they vote to convict you, they can also vote separately to disqualify you from running for public office, a penalty that requires only a simple majority to pass.
Although many Republicans have criticized Trump’s role in the assault on the Capitol, they have also criticized the impeachment for being too divisive.
However, some have pointed out that they could be on board. Republican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania said Trump should resign, telling NBC on Sunday: “The best way for our country is for the president to resign and leave as soon as possible.
But Toomey said this might not be likely.
“There doesn’t seem to be a will or consensus to exercise the 25th Amendment option, and I don’t think there is time to impeach. Anyway, there are 10 days before the president leaves, ”he said.
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