Resign or be impeached
WASHINGTON — A growing corps of House Democrats, furious over the invasion of the Capitol on Wednesday by a mob inspired and encouraged by President Donald Trump, is pushing to rapidly impeach the president a second time if he refuses to resign.
Removing Trump by constitutional means is a tall order for the 12 days remaining in his presidency, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-calif., hasn’t made a formal determination to move forward with a second impeachment.
However, she consulted Friday with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff about curbing Trump’s ability to launch nuclear weapons.
“With great respect, our deliberations will continue,” Pelosi said in a statement Friday evening that laid out several options, including impeachment.
She expressed hope that Trump would “immediately resign” instead.
Among enraged Democrats, an expedited impeachment appeared to be the most attractive option to remove Trump and register their ire at his role in encouraging what became an insurrection.
About 170 of them in the House had signed onto an article that Reps. David Cicilline of Rhode Island, Ted Lieu of California, Jamie Raskin of Maryland and others intend to introduce Monday.
It charges the president with “willfully inciting violence against the government of the United States.”
Democratic senators weighed in with support, and some Republicans appeared newly amenable to the idea.
Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska indicated he would be open to considering articles of impeachment at a trial.
A spokesperson for Sen. Susan Collins of Maine said she was “outraged” by Trump’s role in the violence, but she couldn’t comment on an impeachment case given the possibility she soon could be sitting in the jury.
A third Republican, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-alaska, went further, telling the Anchorage Daily News that she was considering leaving the Republican Party altogether because of Trump.
“I want him out,” she said. “He has caused enough damage.”
At the White House, Trump struck a defiant tone, insisting he would remain a potent force in American politics as aides and allies abandoned him and his postpresidential prospects turned increasingly bleak.
Behind closed doors, he made clear that he wouldn’t resign and expressed regret about releasing a video Thursday committing to a peaceful transition of power and condemning the violence at the Capitol that he had egged on a day before.
President-elect Joe Biden declined to say Friday whether he supported Trump’s impeachment, giving space for the effort in the House to proceed.
“I’m focused on the virus, on the vaccine and economic growth. What the Congress decides to do is for them to decide,” Biden said.
Rushing into an impeachment proceeding could have serious ramifications for the opening weeks of the Biden administration — prompting a Senate trial that could prevent Cabinet nominees from being confirmed for weeks.
That’s the point being subtly made in a fresh memo from Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell, R-KY., who sent a document to GOP senators that outlines how a potential Senate trial would work for Trump — proceedings that almost certainly would occur after he leaves the White House.
In the memo, Mcconnell’s office notes the Senate won’t reconvene for substantive business until Jan. 19, which means the earliest possible date that impeachment trial proceedings can begin in the Senate is the day before Biden is inaugurated.
Although the Senate will hold two pro forma sessions next week, on Tuesday and Friday, it’s barred from conducting any kind of business during those days — including “beginning to act on received articles of impeachment from the House” — without agreement from all 100 senators.
With a cadre of Trump-allied senators in the Republican conference, that unanimous consent is highly unlikely.
In effect, that makes the matter of an impeachment trial an issue that will need to be taken up by incoming Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., in the first days of the Biden presidency.
Mcconnell and Schumer haven’t spoken about any impeachment proceedings, aides said.
Pelosi and Schumer spoke Friday afternoon with Biden, but an account of the call provided by the Biden transition didn’t mention a discussion of impeachment.
Aides to Pelosi and Schumer declined to comment on the talk.
But multiple House Democratic members and aides said they hoped an impeachment vote could be scheduled by early next week. Virtually all of them said it was a matter of civic duty.
“We have a great sense of unity that we have a moral obligation to act,” said Rep. Daniel Kildee of Michigan, a Democratic deputy whip. “If we can shave any number of days of the threat this president represents off the calendar, we will have done public good, but there’s also another important aspect of this. … It would be a more accurate view of history if this president suffered the ultimate penalty for his crimes against his country, no matter how many days are removed from his tenure.”
Pelosi said Friday in a letter to Democratic lawmakers: “If the president does not leave office imminently and willingly, the Congress will proceed with our action.” But she didn’t specify what that action would be.
In the letter, she also described speaking to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. 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.”
She further described Trump as “unhinged” and said lawmakers “must do everything that we can” to protect the nation from him.
The top House Republican, Rep. Kevin Mccarthy of California, warned Democrats against proceeding with impeachment.
“Impeaching the president with just 12 days left in his term will only divide our country more,” he said in a statement, adding that he had reached out to Biden to speak about how “to lower the temperature and unite the country to solve America’s challenges.”
The White House also spoke out.
“A politically motivated impeachment against a president with 12 days remaining in his term will only serve to further divide our great country,” spokesman Judd Deere said.
One key Senate Democrat also warned against proceeding with impeachment — saying he preferred Trump resign or be removed through the 25th Amendment, out of concern that an impeachment trial could hamstring the Biden administration.
“We have to put our government together quickly — that’s the most important thing we should do,” said Sen. Joe Manchin, DW.VA. “We don’t need any more political theater.”