‘UNFIT TO GOVERN’
Trump acknowledges Biden win as Dems push for removal
WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer and the entire Connecticut Congressional delegation called for President Donald Trump’s removal from office after a proTrump mob forced its way into the U.S. Capitol Wednesday, forcing lawmakers into lockdowns during the presidential electoral vote certification.
Four people died, three from medical emergencies and one shot by Capitol police, authorities said.
“This president should not hold office one day longer,” Schumer, D-N.Y., said Thursday. “The quickest and most effective way — it can be done today — to remove this president from office would be for the vice president to immediately invoke the 25th amendment. If the vice president and the Cabinet refuse to stand up, Congress should reconvene to
impeach the president.”
Pelosi, D-Calif,, said Thursday the overwhelming sentiment in her chamber was that the House should impeach Trump again if his Cabinet does not remove him.
Trump only has two weeks left in his term, before President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated on Jan. 20. It would be difficult for Congress to complete an impeachment proceeding in the House and trial in the Senate in that time frame. Removal would require an agreement to convict by Senate Republicans.
Meanwhile, use of the the 25th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution is at the discretion of Vice President Mike Pence and Trump’s Cabinet; the amendment would allow them to remove him from office if they decide he is unable to complete his duties. Pence would complete Trump’s term.
In the early hours Thursday, Trump publicly acknowledged his defeat in the Nov. 3 election and said Biden would have an orderly transition.
Connecticut lawmakers spoke on Thursday prior to Trump’s concession video.
U.S. Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said Thursday that Trump should not remain in office another day and either the impeachment or the 25th Amendment should be used to get him out.
“This president is unhinged, he is unstable, he is angry,” Murphy said. “I think this is an incredibly perilous moment for democracy.”
U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes, D-5, agreed.
“The events on Jan. 6 are the antithesis of every American ideal, and responsibility rests squarely on the shoulders of this president,” she said. “He violated his oath to protect and defend our country for the express purpose of overturning a national election.”
“I support every effort to remove Donald Trump from office immediately,” U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3, said in an interview Wednesday. “I really deeply believe the survival of our democracy depends on it. He’s got to go. Whatever the what the fastest, most efficient route we can take is what we should do.”
Blumenthal said he thought Republicans should launch the impeachment effort, if the 25th Amendment is not used.
“For too long, their silence or their outright encouragement has enabled this president,” he said.
Many politicians, Republicans and Democrats, were critical of Trump after his rally encouraged supporters to march on the Capitol and his later statements — he continued false claims that the election was stolen from him and called Pence a “traitor” — did little to tamp down the violent mob Wednesday. But only some said Trump should be forced out of office before his term ends.
Former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., said in a Hearst Connecticut Media interview Thursday Trump’s actions fueled the mob who attacked the Capitol, but removing him from office in the last two weeks of his term would only turn up the heat on a polarized, divided nation.
“I was irate at what I saw. That just cannot happen again,” Lott said. “Trump has to take the blame ... I just can’t believe it.”
But Lott, who presided over the impeachment trial of former President Bill Clinton, said impeachments were “always harmful and counterproductive.” He thought Pence invoking the 25th was a terrible idea, too.
“We’ve got a chance to turn the page here, let’s do it,” he said. “It just would be more misery and more angst and more everything. We’re dealing with enough of that right now.”
Some House and Senate Democrats have backed a second impeachment, along with Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Wednesday. Republican Vermont Gov. Phil Scott said Trump should resign or be removed from office by Congress or his Cabinet.
U.S. Rep. John Larson, D-1, said he would support impeachment or would encourage the administration to use the 25th Amendment against Trump.
“The man has proven he is unfit to govern today,” Larson said in an interview Wednesday. “I think that the president has a mental disorder ... I just can’t imagine what these next 14 days are going to be like, the unpredictability of this president.”
Seventeen Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee wrote to Pence Wednesday urging him to invoke the 25th and begin the process of removing him from office.
Prior to Wednesday, every member of the Connecticut House delegation signed onto a resolution to censure Trump for a phone call Saturday to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in which Trump asked him to “find 11,780 votes.” Censure is the highest form of rebuke Congress can give short of adopting articles of impeachment. Only four presidents have been officially censured, according to the Congressional Research Service.
Speaking from the secure, undisclosed location where he was locked down with about 200 lawmakers Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-5, said “I think there is a sense in this room that that (censure) may not be enough.”
“As a practical matter I’m not sure that anything will happen, but I can tell you that in this room the word impeachment has been used more than a couple dozen times,” he said. On his own view on the matter, he said “I need a little bit of time to get a little bit of perspective.”
By Thursday afternoon, his mind was made up: “Trump is too dangerous to remain in office,” he said. “I support invoking the 25th Amendment and the removal of Trump from office.”
Trump was impeached in December 2019 for abuse of power and obstruction of justice for soliciting a political investigation by Ukraine into the Biden family by the Democrat-led House. The Republican-majority Senate declined to convict and remove him.