Trump ‘will remain a threat’
Democrats are urging Republicans to help them to impeach US President Donald Trump on a single charge of incitement of insurrection, written narrowly to appeal across the political divide.
Members of the House judiciary committee have drafted an article of impeachment accusing Trump of high crimes and misdemeanours for ‘‘wilfully inciting violence against the government’’ with his rabble-rousing speech to his followers on Thursday before they attacked the US Capitol in Washington, DC.
It says that Trump will ‘‘remain a threat to national security, democracy and the constitution’’, and should be removed and disqualified from public office, preventing him from seeking a second term in 2024.
If passed by the House of Representatives, where Democrats have a small majority, Trump would be the only president to have been impeached twice. The case would go to the Senate for trial, although this is unlikely to be arranged while Trump is in office because of the lack of time before Joe Biden becomes president on January 20, when Democrats will hold a thin majority in the upper chamber.
The White House responded: ‘‘A politically motivated impeachment against a president with 12 days remaining in his term will only serve to further divide our great country.’’
Democrats are debating whether to push ahead with a
trial during the administration of Biden, who has kept out of the impeachment debate and said yesterday that he would leave it up to Congress.
Biden said Trump was ‘‘not fit to serve’’, but that he was focused on the start of his own administration, and his top three priorities were beating back the coronavirus, distributing vaccines fairly and equitably, and reviving the struggling US economy.
Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House and senior Democrat in Congress, told Democrats that she would prefer Trump to quit or be removed by the vice
president and cabinet using the 25th Amendment to the US Constitution. ‘‘If the president does not leave office imminently and willingly, the Congress will proceed with our action,’’ she said.
Pelosi also spoke with General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and urged him to ‘‘discuss available precautions’’ to prevent ‘‘an unstable president from initiating military hostilities or accessing the launch codes and ordering a nuclear strike’’.
Pence using the 25th Amendment to oust Trump would require support from a
majority of the cabinet, although sources close to the vicepresident said he was opposed.
Democrats believe that at least a few House Republicans could join an impeachment vote on the narrow grounds of incitement, but only one, Adam Kinzinger, has so far called for Trump’s removal. Ted Lieu, a Democrat who helped to draft the impeachment text, said it had been written ‘‘narrowly, without any inflammatory rhetoric, with the goal of gaining Republican support’’.
In the Senate, where a twothirds majority is required to convict a president, Alaska’s
Lisa Murkowski is the first Republican to say Trump should quit.
Defence leaders are reviewing restrictions on the use of force by National Guard troops, and could allow them to carry batons or guns in Washington, DC as they brace for more protests and possible violence around Biden’s January 20 inauguration.
Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy said any changes would be determined by the intelligence gathered in the coming days about potential threats.
The review reflects concerns about the safety of guard troops in thewake of the deadly riots at the Capitol on Thursday, and would also consider the legal restrictions that prohibit the use of the military for domestic law enforcement. Because the National Guard soldiers are unarmed, they are generally limited to tasks such as staffing checkpoints.
Altogether, 6200 guard members have been activated, and are expected to arrive in Washington over the next few days.
■ Twitter yesterday banned Trump’s account, citing ‘‘the risk of further incitement of violence’’. The company said recent Trump tweets amounted to glorification of violence when read in the context of the Capitol riot and plans circulating online for future armed protests around Biden’s inauguration.
In the tweets cited by Twitter, Trump stated that he would not be attending the inauguration, and referred to his supporters as ‘‘American Patriots’’, saying they will have ‘‘a GIANT VOICE long into the future’’.