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“I join with the Democratic Leader of the Senate in calling on the Vice President to impeach this President by immediately invoking the 25th Amendment,” Pelosi said. “If the Vice President and Cabinet do not act, Congress may be ready to move forward with the impeachment that is the overwhelming sentiment of my caucus and the American people.”
Invoking the 25th Amendment would force Vice President Mike Pence and a majority in the Cabinet to vote to remove Trump from office due to his inability to “discharge the powers and duties of his office” – an unprecedented step.
Any push from the 25th Amendment faces an unprecedented steep hill to come to fruition with little time to go before Biden’s inauguration. Appeals to Congress, however, underscore how shocked and furious lawmakers are at the president in the wake of the devastation on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.
Senator Patty Murray, No. 3 in the Senate Democratic Leadership, also said it was time to invoke the 25th Amendment.
“The most immediate way to ensure that the President is not able to do more harm in the days to come is to invoke the 25th Amendment and remove him from office. As history watches, I urge Vice President Pence and the President’s office to put the country ahead of the party and act, ”she said in a statement.
House Oversight Committee Chair Carolyn Maloney, Democrat of New York, backed Trump’s removal from office on Thursday either through the 25th Amendment or impeachment.
“Invoking the 25th Amendment is the quickest way to do it, and timeliness must be our goal,” she said, adding: “If the vice president and cabinet don’t act, we have the duty to pursue impeachment. “
Other leading Democrats have called for impeachment following mob violence on Capitol Hill which took place during a joint session of Congress gathered to count electoral votes confirming the victory of President-elect Joe Biden in the amid false claims by Trump that the election was rigged against him.
Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the chairman of the Democratic House caucus, tweeted Thursday: “Donald Trump should be impeached, convicted and removed from office immediately.”
Three members of the House Judiciary Committee – Reps Jamie Raskin, David Cicillin and Ted Lieu – are circulating an impeachment resolution to their colleagues calling Trump’s actions an abuse of power. They wrote that Trump violated the Constitution by “willfully inciting violence against the government of the United States.”
The four members of the progressive “squad” of Democratic lawmakers – Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley – have also spoken out in favor of impeachment following the violent siege on Capitol Hill.
“I write articles of impeachment. Donald J. Trump should be impeached by the House of Representatives and removed from office by the United States Senate. We cannot allow him to remain in office, it is to preserve our Republic and we must fulfill our oath, ”Omar tweeted on Wednesday.
“It’s on Donald Trump, period. He called the people in Washington and gave them marching orders. He must be impeached and fired immediately,” Tlaib tweeted Wednesday.
With Biden’s inauguration date quickly approaching January 20, it is highly unlikely that there will be enough time or political will in Congress for any kind of impeachment effort.
The Democratic-led House of Representatives already impeached Trump in 2019. In order to remove a president from office by impeachment, the Senate must vote to convict after an impeachment trial. This did not happen in the GOP-controlled Senate where Trump was ultimately acquitted.
After the pro-Trump crowd was kicked off Capitol Hill, lawmakers met again late in the evening to continue the electoral vote count. Congress finished the tally and finalized Biden’s victory in the early hours of Thursday morning.
This story was updated with further developments on Thursday.
CNN’s Alex Rogers and Michael Warren contributed to this report.
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