All Eyes on Mike Pence as House Panel Calls for Vice President To Invoke 25th Amendment
House Democrats on Wednesday made one last stab at trying to remove President Donald Trump from office.
Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee used the security breach at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday as a basis for asking Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment and remove Trump from office.
The 25th Amendment allows a vice president and Cabinet to remove a sitting president who is “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.”
In the swirl of rumors flying about Washington on Wednesday night, some reports said removing Trump was under consideration by some members of his Cabinet.
JUST IN: “This is not news we deliver lightly,” @margbrennan says as she reports: Trump Cabinet secretaries are discussing invoking the 25th Amendment to remove President Trump. Nothing formal yet presented to VP Pence.
“I’m talking about actual members of the Cabinet,” she says
— Ed O’Keefe (@edokeefe) January 7, 2021
Democratic Rep. David Cicilline of Rhode Island shared the letter on Twitter.
“Vice President Pence can help put down this attempted coup if he wants to,” he tweeted. “I’m circulating a letter urging him to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office. If he doesn’t, then Congress should go ahead and impeach the President.”
Vice President Pence can help put down this attempted coup if he wants to.
I’m circulating a letter urging him to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office.
If he doesn’t, then Congress should go ahead and impeach the President.
— David Cicilline (@davidcicilline) January 6, 2021
NEW: I am sending a letter with @RepTedLieu and our colleagues on the House Judiciary Committee, calling on Vice President Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Donald Trump from office after today’s events. pic.twitter.com/5VK8DLTLn4
— David Cicilline (@davidcicilline) January 7, 2021
The letter was also signed by Democrat Reps. Steve Cohen of Tennessee; Madeleine Dean and Mary Gay Scanlon of Pennsylvania; Ted Deutch of Florida; Veronica Escobar, Sylvia Garcia and Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas; Pramila Jayapal of Washington; Hank Johnson of Georgia; Mondaire Jones and Jerry Nadler of New York; Ted Lieu and Eric Swalwell of California; Lucy McBath of Georgia; Joe Neguse of Colorado; Jamie Raskin of Maryland; and Greg Stanton of Arizona.
Working on the Trump nuclear issue … https://t.co/TLwcv85RUZ
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) January 7, 2021
Others also called for the president to be removed from office.
“The insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol today should be held fully accountable for their actions under the law. So should the President,” Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington said in a statement, according to KXLY-TV. “The most immediate way to ensure the President is prevented from causing further harm in coming days is to invoke the 25th Amendment and remove him from office.
“As history watches, I urge Vice President Pence and the President’s cabinet to put country before party and act.”
The letter from the House Democrats said Trump was to blame for the incursion, which occurred during a D.C. rally in support of the president’s fight against alleged voter fraud that he claims swung the election to Democrat Joe Biden.
“It is with great sadness that we write to you following the incidents that unfolded at the U.S. Capitol today. As you presided over the U.S. Senate, angry supporters of President Trump attempted an insurrection, illegally storming and breaching the U.S. Capitol building to stop the certification of President-elect Biden’s victory,” said the letter, which was posted on the Cicilline’s website.
“The world watched aghast as insurrectionists, who had been egged on by the President, threatened the safety of elected officials and staff and destroyed public property as they stormed and occupied both the House and Senate chambers bringing our democracy to a halt. At one point, the insurrectionists even removed an American flag flying at the Capitol and replaced it with a Trump flag,” the letter said.
The letter claimed Trump inflamed the protesters and rioters.
“Meanwhile, President Trump remained silent even as insurrections broke windows, threatened U.S. Capitol Police, and scaled the walls of the Capitol. Earlier in the morning, President Trump held a rally at the White House and told protestors “I’ll be with you” and encouraged them to march to the Capitol to protest the certification of the electoral college votes,” it said.
The letter said Trump’s refusal to abandon his claims of election fraud was part of the reason he should be removed from office.
“Last Saturday, President Trump sought to undermine our democracy by encouraging election officials in Georgia to find more votes to overturn the election results. Even before the election, President Trump refused to commit to the peaceful transition of power. We have seen the fruit of the President’s remarks in the violence and chaos unleashed today,” the letter said.
The letter begged Pence to remove Trump.
“Section 4 of the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides the Vice President and a majority of sitting Cabinet secretaries with the authority to determine a president as unfit if he ‘is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office,'” it said. “Even in his video announcement this afternoon, President Trump revealed that he is not mentally sound and is still unable to process and accept the results of the 2020 election.
“President Trump’s willingness to incite violence and social unrest to overturn the election results by force clearly meet this standard. So too are his recent Tweets, which Twitter has since deleted, saying the election was ‘stolen’ and that today’s riots ‘are the things and events that happen.’
“For the sake of our democracy, we emphatically urge you to invoke the 25th Amendment and begin the process of removing President Trump from power. President Trump has shown time and again that he is unwilling to protect our Democracy and carry out the duties of the office.”
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