House races to oust Trump, who says Democrats are to blame
WASHINGTON — The U.S. House pressed Tuesday toward impeaching U.S. President Donald Trump for the Capitol attack, taking time only to try to persuade his vice-president to push him out first. Trump showed no remorse, blaming his accusers for the “tremendous anger” in America.
Already scheduled to leave office next week, Trump is on the verge of becoming the only president in history to be twice impeached. His incendiary rhetoric at a rally ahead of the Capitol uprising is now in the impeachment charge against him, even as the falsehoods he spread about election fraud are still being championed by some Republicans.
As lawmakers reconvened at the Capitol for the first time since the bloody siege, they were also bracing for more violence ahead of Democratic president-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, Jan. 20.
“All of us have to do some soul searching,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., during a House rules debate, pleading for a change of heart among colleagues still backing Trump.
Trump, meanwhile, warned the lawmakers off impeachment and suggested it was the drive to oust him that was dividing the country.
“To continue on this path, I think it’s causing tremendous danger to our country, and it’s causing tremendous anger,” Trump said.
Impeachment ahead, the House was first pressing VicePresident Mike Pence and the cabinet to remove Trump more quickly , warning he is a threat to democracy in the few remaining days of his presidency.
The House was expected to approve a resolution calling on Pence and the cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment to the
Constitution to declare the president unable to serve. Pence, who had a “good meeting” with Trump on Monday, their first since the vice-president was among those sheltering from the attack, was not expected to take any such action. After that, the House would move swiftly to impeachment on Wednesday.
Trump faces a single charge — “incitement of insurrection” — in the impeachment resolution after the most serious and deadly domestic incursion at the Capitol in the nation’s history.
A handful of House Republicans could vote to impeach, but in the narrowly divided Senate there are not expected to be the two-thirds votes to convict him, though some Republicans say it’s time for Trump to resign.
No member of the cabinet has publicly called for Trump to be removed from office through the 25th Amendment.