THE TWITTER END: TRUMP ‘PERMANENTLY’ BANNED
Pelosi urged top general to keep N-codes from 'unhinged' president
WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the Pentagon’s top general and urged him to add extra precautions to stop what she called an “unhinged” President Trump from using the nuclear codes.
The call was made as pressure mounts from both sides of the aisle for Vice President Mike Pence to invoke thehe 25th Amendment orr else a new impeachment proceeding could com-mence in the House of Rep-presentatives ass soon as Monday.
Pelosi said Friday she made the drastic call to Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley a day earlier in the aftermath of the deadly US Capitol siege.
“This morning, I spoke to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley to discuss available precautions for preventing an unstable president from initiating military hostilities or accessing the launch codes and ordering a nuclear strike,” Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in a statement.
“The situation of this unhinged President could not be more dangerous, and we must do everything that we can to protect the American people from his unbalanced assault on our country and our democracy,” she wrote.
Pelosi told fellow Democrats on a Friday conference call that she received assurances from Milley that there were safeguards in place in case Trump wanted to launch a nuclear attack in the final days of his presidency.
Dozens of Democrats and a growing number of Republicans have called on Vice President Pence and the Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment and remove Trump, claiming he is no longer fit for office.
Echoing threats she made on Thursday, Pelosi said that Congress would move forward with new articles of impeachment if Pence did not act — comparing Trump’s acts to those of President Nixon in the Watergate scandal.
“Yesterday, Leader Schumer and I placed a call with Vice President Pence, and we still hope to hear from him as soon as possible with a positive answer as to whether he and the Cabinet will honor their oath to the Constitution and the American people,” she wrote.
“Nearly fifty years ago, after years of enabling their rogue President, Republicans in Congress finally told President Nixon that it was time to go. To
day, following the President’s dangerous and seditious acts, Republicans in Congress need to follow their example and call on Trump to depart his office — immediately,” she went on.
“If the President does not leave office imminently and willingly, the Congress will proceed with our action,” she warned.
Articles of impeachment were already drafted by Friday accusing Trump of “inciting an insurrection.” The document, which has over 150 sponsors, accuses Trump of violating his constitutional duty by encouraging a crowd of his supporters to fight the vote to certify Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory.
“In all of this, President Trump gravely endangered the security of the United States government. He threatened the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful transfer of power, and imperiled a coordinate branch of government,” the document reads.
The document, prepared by Reps. David Cicilline (D-RI), Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), also seeks to prevent Trump from running again in 2024.
“He thereby betrayed his trust as president, to the manifest injury of the people of the United States,” the document continued. “Wherefore, President Trump, by such conduct, has demonstrated that he will remain a threat to national security, democracy, and the Constitution if allowed to remain in office, and has acted in a manner grossly incompatible with self-governance and the rule of law.
“President Trump thus warrants impeachment and trial, removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, and profit under the United States.”
It is the second time that Congress has moved to impeach Trump. He was impeached but acquitted at trial by the Senate last year after he was accused of improperly pressuring the Ukrainian government to investigate Joe Biden and son Hunter Biden. No president has ever been impeached twice.
A White House spokesman said impeachment would only cause further division, especially with Trump set to exit the White House on Jan. 20.
“As President Trump said yesterday, this is a time for healing and unity as one nation,” the White House statement reads. “A politically motivated impeachment against a president with 12 days remaining in his term will only serve to further divide our great country.”
At least two Cabinet members and multiple staff members have quit in protest over the president’s handling of the deadly riot which killed five people.
A growing number of Democrats, including House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-SC), have announced their support for impeaching Trump as early as next week, but any move is likely to follow the same fate as the impeachment of Trump last year over the Ukraine pressure scandal.
Assistant House Speaker Rep. Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) said a floor vote could come next week. Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) on Thursday became the first Republican to call for Trump to be removed via the 25th Amendment. And on Friday, Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, became the first Republican senator to call on Trump to resign.
“I want him to resign. I want him out. He has caused enough damage,” Murkowski told the Anchorage Daily News.
“I think he should leave,” she said before delivering a scathing rebuke of his legacy.
“He hasn’t been focused on what is going on with COVID. He’s either been golfing or he’s been inside the Oval Office fuming and throwing every single person who has been loyal and faithful to him under the bus, starting with the vice president,” Murkowski went on.
Republicans are still in control of the Senate until the end of the month and are likely to vote against any measure, or stall a trial altogether, even as Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and such Trump stalwarts as Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) rebuke the president’s claims the election was stolen from him and his decision to rile the mob of supporters at a rally before they attacked Congress.