Pence rejects effort to remove Trump from office
Impeachment looms as more top Republicans abandon Trump
US Vice-president Mike Pence yesterday officially rejected a plan to oust Donald Trump and instead savagely attacked the Democrats. Democrats were calling on him to use the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from power, but Pence said he would not do it and told the Democrats to back down. He accused them of playing “political games at a time so serious in the life of our nation”.
In a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Pence said the 25th Amendment should not be used “as a means of punishment or usurpation” — rather it should be reserved for cases of medical or mental incapacitation.
He said he will not “yield to political pressure to exert pressure beyond my constitutional authority to determine the outcome of the election, and I will not now yield to efforts in the House of Representatives to play political games at a time so serious in the life of our nation”.
He also wrote that invoking the 25th Amendment “in such a manner would set a terrible precedent”.
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.
Meanwhile, three three Republican lawmakers, including thirdranking House GOP leader Liz Cheney of Wyoming, announced they would vote to impeach Trump, cleaving the party’s leadership.
“The President of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack,” said Cheney in a statement. “There has never been a greater betrayal by a president of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution.”
Representatives John Katko of New York, a former federal prosecutor, and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, an Air Force veteran, said they, too, would vote to impeach.
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.
In his first remarks to reporters since last week’s violence, the outgoing President offered no condolences for those dead or injured, only saying, “I want no violence.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell is reported to have told colleagues he is “pleased” the impeachment process is happening as it will allow the Republicans to be “purged” of Trump’s influence.
According to the New York Times, he is said to have been enraged by the President’s lacklustre comments following the storming of the US Capitol building.
Adding to the pressure on Trump, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the group of the most senior uniformed leaders at the Pentagon, have condemned the riot at the Capitol as a “direct assault” on Congress and the constitutional
process. The statement — issued to the entire US military — is extraordinary because the chiefs usually stay out of politics, and they are essentially asking to them to defy the President and uphold democracy in the United States.
“As Service Members, we must embody the values and ideals of the nation. We support and defend the Constitution. Any act to disrupt the Constitutional process is not only against our traditions, values, and oath; it is against the law,” the statement said.
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 has already rejected that option, so the House will likely move swiftly to impeachment today.
— Agencies