Pelosi: Trump a threat to democracy
WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Sunday the House will proceed with legislation to impeach President Donald Trump unless the vice-president and Cabinet invoke constitutional authority to force him out, calling Mr Trump a threat to democracy after the deadly assault on the Capitol.
Ms Pelosi made the announcement in a letter to colleagues, framing it as an ultimatum to vice-president Mike Pence to invoke the powers of the 25th Amendment to remove Mr Trump from office. If not, she said, the House would proceed with impeachment. Mr Trump could become the only president to be impeached twice.
“In protecting our Constitution and our democracy, we will act with urgency, because this President represents an imminent threat to both,” she said, and added: “The horror of the ongoing assault on our democracy perpetrated by this President is intensified and so is the immediate need for action.”
Ms Pelosi’s plan seeks a vote on Monday on a resolution calling on Mr Pence and Cabinet officials to invoke the 25th Amendment. Under rules when the full House is not convened, any objection would reject the resolution. Ms Pelosi would then put the resolution before the full House on Tuesday. If it were to pass, Mr Pence and the Cabinet would have 24 hours to act before the House would move toward impeachment.
With impeachment planning intensifying, two Republican senators said they wanted Mr Trump to resign immediately as efforts mounted to prevent Mr Trump from ever again holding elective office in the wake of deadly riots at the Capitol.
House Democrats were expected to introduce articles of impeachment on Monday. The strategy would be to condemn the president’s actions swiftly but delay an impeachment trial in the Senate for 100 days. That would allow President-elect Joe Biden to focus on other priorities as soon as he is inaugurated January 20.