THROW DON OUT!
House Dems may vote to impeach within days, but Senate phase could be delayed by months
Democrats say President Trump’s role in inciting an attack on the Capitol was so outrageous that they’ll try to boot him out of an office even as his administration ends in just over a week.
The House of Representatives will vote to urge Vice President Mike Pence to remove Trump, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) wrote colleagues Sunday. If that doesn’t happen within 24 hours, Democrats will move ahead with plans to impeach the president, she said.
“In protecting our Constitution and our Democracy, we will act with urgency, because this President represents an imminent threat to both,” Pelosi stated. “The horror of the ongoing assault on our ddemocracy perpetratedt by this President is intensified and so is the immediate need for action.”
Dems will call on Pence to invoke the powers of the 25th Amendment — an unlikely scenario — which allows the president to be removed when “he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.,” Pelosi stated.
Earlier Sunday, Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) said Democrats may also wait until after the first 100 days of President-elect Joe Biden’s term to initiate impeachment proceedings.
“It may be Tuesday or Wednesday before action is taken, but I think it will be taken this week,” Clyburn told CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“We’ll take the vote that we should take in the House, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will make the determination as to when is the best time to get that vote and get the managers appointed and move that legislation over to the Senate,” he said.
“It just so happens that if it didn’t go over there for 100 days, it could — let’s give President-elect Biden the 100 days he needs to get his agenda off and running, and maybe we’ll send the articles sometime after that,” Clyburn added.
It was not immediately clear how impeachment would work for an out-of-office president.
But impeaching Trump had the support of 185 members of Congress as of Saturday night, according to Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.).
Pelosi, who has yet to commit to impeaching Trump for a second time, was set to hold a Monday afternoon call with other Democratic leaders on planning strategy, according to Bloomberg
News. They’ll have to take into account that even if the Democrat-controlled House votes to impeach Trump, removal by the Republican-controlled Senate is considered a near-impossibility.
During a Sunday video conference with San Francisco constituents, she slammed Trump backers who attacked the Capitol but didn’t share new details of her plans.
“Justice will be done. Democracy will prevail. And America will be healed. But it is a decision that we have to make,” she said.
On Sunday, Democratic members of Congress described Trump as a threat to the country.
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-Brooklyn, Queens) made a full-throated call for impeaching the president a second time, noting the commander-in-chief still controls the most powerful arsenal in the world.
“Donald Trump may be in the Twitter penalty box, but he still has access to the nuclear codes,” the Brooklyn Dem said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “That’s a frightening prospect.” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-Queens, Bronx) echoed his remarks.
“Every minute and every hour that he is in office represents a clear and present danger, not just to the United States Congress, but, frankly, to the country,” she said on ABC’s “This Week.”
Critics say removing Trump from office would undermine Biden’s stated mission of uniting the country after Trump’s divisive presidency.
“When we talk about healing, the process of healing is separate and, in fact, requires accountability,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “And so, if we allow insurrection against the United States with impunity, with no accountability, we are inviting it to happen again. That is how serious it is.”
Even Chris Christie, a staunch Trump ally for years, said Sunday the president’s role in the Wednesday attack of the Capitol was an impeachable offense.
His comment on ABC’s “This Week” was the latest in a stunning series of rebuffs of the president from high-profile Republicans.
“If inciting to insurrection isn’t [an impeachable offense], then I don’t really know what is,” said Christie, the Republican former governor of New Jersey.
Former acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, speaking on Fox News, explained his decision to quit the administration with just days left in the president’s term, saying Wednesday’s attack was unlike any other event he’s seen. “Everybody recognizes that what happened on Wednesday is different,” he said on “Fox News Sunday.”
“I thought it was important for someone who is not establishment, not a never-Trumper, to say that was wrong,” he added.
Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) called on Trump to resign, saying he believes the president committed impeachable offenses but that there’s probably not enough time for Congress to remove him.
Toomey said on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that the best way forward for the country would be “for the president to resign and go away as soon as possible.”
“I acknowledge that may not be likely, but that would be best,” he added.
Last week, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) became the first Republican to call on Trump to