SORRY DONALD! PENCE SNUBS TRUMP AGAIN
MIKE PENCE has reportedly not ruled out using the 25th amendment to remove Donald Trump from office after the riot at the US Capitol building that left five people dead.
The vice-president has refused to take calls from leading Democrats Chuck Schumer and House speaker Nancy Pelosi. They are both calling on him to declare his boss unfit for office.
But he has not dismissed the idea in case Mr Trump becomes a threat to national security, according to CNN.
Mr Pence, his wife Karen, daughter Charlotte and brother Greg were forced to take shelter in a secret bunker when the mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol on Wednesday.
They are said to have heard some chanting ‘hang Pence’.
It is understood Mr Trump has not called to check on his deputy or condemn the threats. He has since frozen out Mr Pence by revoking White House access for the vice-president’s chief of staff.
Unlike Mr Trump, Mr Pence has said he would attend Joe Biden’s inauguration ceremony on January 20.
The 25th amendment can be invoked when a majority of cabinet members believe the president cannot carry out the office.
However, some in Mr Pence’s team worry any effort to remove Mr Trump could further provoke him. Mr Trump initially praised his supporters at the Capitol but later condemned their violence in a video after senior aides reportedly warned he could be held liable.
Today, Democrats are expected to formally start the process of making him the first US president to be impeached twice. Ted Lieu, a Democrat congressman who helped draft the charges said, as of Saturday, they were backed by 190 Democrats but no Republicans.
‘We have videos of the speech where (Trump) incites the mob,’ he tweeted.
‘We have videos of the mob violently attacking the Capitol. This isn’t a close call.’
But the president’s allies have urged Democrats to shelve any impeachment effort in the name of unity.
White House spokesman Judd Deere said it ‘ would only serve to further divide the country’.
Meanwhile, Mr Trump is expected to make his first public appearance since the riot when he goes to Texas tomorrow to mark the completion of 400 miles of a border wall with Mexico.