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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Sunday the House would pass legislation to impeach President Donald Trump as she pushed the Vice President and Cabinet to invoke constitutional authority to force him out, warning that Trump was a threat to democracy after the deadly attack on Capitol Hill.
House action could begin as early as Monday as pressure increases on Trump to step down. Republican Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania joined Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska in calling on Trump to “step down and leave as soon as possible.”
An astonishing end to Trump’s last 10 days in power was underway as lawmakers warned of the damage the president could still do ahead of Joe Biden’s January 20 inauguration. Trump, locked in the White House, was increasingly isolated after a mob riot on the Capitol in support of his bogus allegations of voter fraud.
Footage taken inside the U.S. Capitol shows the moments leading up to Ashli Babbitt’s filming as supporters of President Donald Trump rushed to the president’s lobby. The video was authorized by a self-proclaimed civil rights activist.
“We will act urgently because this president poses an imminent threat,” Pelosi said in a letter Sunday evening to his colleagues.
“The horror of the continued attack on our democracy perpetrated by this president intensifies, as does the immediate need for action.”
On Monday, Pelosi’s management team will look to vote on a resolution calling on Vice President Mike Pence and Cabinet officials to invoke the 25th Amendment, with a House plenary vote scheduled for Tuesday.
After that, Pence and the Cabinet would have 24 hours to act before the House proceeds with the impeachment.
President-elect Joe Biden spoke out on Friday to condemn “national terrorists … thugs, insurgents, white supremacists [and] anti-Semites ”who stormed the US Capitol on Wednesday but said the riot would help unify Democrats and Republicans against anti-democratic ideals.
In an interview on “60 Minutes” broadcast on Sunday, Pelosi invoked the Watergate era when Republicans in the Senate told President Richard Nixon, “It’s over.”
“This is what has to happen now,” she said.
With impeachment planning intensifying, Toomey said he doubts that impeachment can be done before Biden’s inauguration, although a growing number of lawmakers believe this step is necessary to ensure Trump cannot. never again hold elected office.
“I think the president disqualified himself never, certainly, to return to office,” Toomey said. “I don’t think he’s eligible in any way.”
Twitter announced Friday that it had permanently suspended President Donald Trump from the platform for using language that was “highly likely to encourage and inspire people to replicate the criminal acts that took place on the United States Capitol.”
Murkowski, long exasperated with the president, told the Anchorage Daily News on Friday that Trump “just needed to get out.” A third, Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., Didn’t go that far, but on Sunday he warned Trump to be “very careful” in his last days in office.
House Democrats were due to present articles of impeachment on Monday. The strategy would be to quickly condemn the president’s actions but delay a Senate impeachment trial by 100 days. This would allow President-elect Joe Biden to focus on other priorities from his inauguration on January 20.
Representative Jim Clyburn, the third-ranked House Democrat and one of Biden’s main allies, presented the ideas on Sunday as the country attacked the Capitol siege by Trump loyalists trying to overturn the results elections.
“Let’s give President-elect Biden the 100 days he needs to get his agenda going,” Clyburn said.
Derrick Evans, a Republican representative for the state of West Virginia, was indicted Friday after posting and removing a video of himself storming the U.S. Capitol building.
Corporate America began to show its reaction to the Capitol Riots by linking them to campaign contributions.
Blue Cross Blue Shield Association CEO and chairman Kim Keck has said he will not contribute to lawmakers – all Republicans – who have supported challenges to Biden’s constituency victory. The group “will suspend contributions to lawmakers who voted to undermine our democracy,” Kim said.
Citigroup did not single out lawmakers aligned with Trump’s efforts to call off the election, but said it would suspend all federal political donations for the first three months of the year. Citi’s head of global government affairs Candi Wolff said in a Friday memo to employees: “We want you to be assured that we will not support candidates who do not respect the rule of law.”
Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Said an impeachment trial could not begin under the current schedule until inauguration day, Jan.20.
Richard Barnett, who was pictured on Wednesday with his feet on the desk of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, was arrested on Friday, law enforcement said.
While many have criticized Trump, Republicans have said impeachment will be a divisive in times of unity.
Senator Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Said instead of rallying Democrats want to “talk about ridiculous things like ‘impeach a president'” with just a few days in office.
Still, some Republicans might be in favor.
Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse said he would review all papers sent by the House. Illinois Representative Adam Kinzinger, a frequent critic of Trump, said he would “vote the right way” if the matter came to him.
The Democratic effort to stamp Trump’s presidential record – for the second time – with the indelible mark of impeachment had progressed rapidly since the riot.
Representative David Cicillin, DR.I, a leader in House efforts to draft impeachment articles accusing Trump of inciting an insurgency, said on Sunday his group had more than 200 co-sponsors.
The articles, if passed by the House, could then be sent to the Senate for trial, with senators acting as jurors to acquit or convict Trump. If found guilty, Trump would be removed from office and succeeded by the vice president. It would be the first time that an American president has been deposed twice.
The decision to impeach Pelosi was potentially complicated by what this meant for Biden and the start of his presidency. While reiterating that he has long viewed Trump as unfit for office, Biden avoided an impeachment question on Friday, saying what Congress did “it’s up to them to decide.”
America watched in horror as waves of Trump supporters swarmed the U.S. Capitol. But as the shock begins to wear off, questions about security failures and the prosecution of rioters remain. LX News breaks down the answers to three of your most pressing questions.
A violent and largely white crowd of Trump supporters overpowered police, crossed security lines and windows and ransacked the Capitol on Wednesday, forcing lawmakers to disperse as they finalized Biden’s victory over Trump in Electoral College.
Toomey has appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union” and NBC’s “Meet the Press”. Clyburn was on “Fox News Sunday” and CNN. Kinzinger was on ABC’s “This Week”, Blunt was on CBS’s “Face the Nation” and Rubio was on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures”.
Superville reported from Wilmington, Delaware. Associated Press editors Alexandra Jaffe, Alan Fram, and Zeke Miller contributed to this report.
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