Impeachment: Speaker calls on Pence to act, says House will present case
WASHINGTON — The House moved on two fronts Sunday to try to force President Trump from office, escalating pressure on the vice president to strip him of power and committing to quickly begin impeachment proceedings against him for inciting a mob that violently attacked the seat of American government.
In a letter to colleagues, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco said the House would present a resolution Monday calling on Vice
President Mike Pence and the Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment and wrest the powers of the presidency. She called on Pence to respond “within 24 hours” and indicated she expected a Tuesday vote on the resolution.
Next, she said, the House would bring an impeachment case to the floor. Though she did not specify how quickly it would move, leading Democrats have suggested they could press forward on a remarkably quick timetable, charging Trump by midweek with “high crimes and misdemeanors.”
“In protecting our Constitution and our democracy, we will act with urgency, because this president represents an imminent threat to both,” she wrote. “As the days go by, the horror of the ongoing assault on our democracy perpetrated by this president is intensified and so is the immediate need for action.”
Pelosi’s actions effectively gave Pence, who is said to be opposed to the idea, an ultimatum: use his power under the Constitution to force Trump out by declaring him unable to discharge his duties, or make him the first president in American history to be impeached twice.
Far from capitulating, Trump made plans to proceed as if the past five days had simply not happened at all. But momentum in Washington was shifting decisively against him.
More than 210 of the 222 Democrats in the House — nearly a majority — had already signed on to an impeachment resolution by Sunday afternoon, registering support
for a measure that asserted that Trump would “remain a threat to national security, democracy, and the Constitution” if he was not removed in the final 10 days of his term. A second Republican senator, Patrick Toomey of Pennsylvania, said Trump should resign immediately, joining Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.
With few Democrats hopeful Pence would act, Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina, the thirdranking House Democrat, said the House could vote to impeach Trump by Wednesday, one week before Inauguration Day. Lawmakers were put on notice to return to Washington.
“If we are the people’s house, let’s do the people’s work and let’s vote to impeach this president,” Clyburn said on “Fox News Sunday.”
Clyburn argued in favor of delaying the start of any Senate trial for several months to allow Presidentelect Joe Biden to take office without the cloud of an allconsuming impeachment
drama. It would be nearly impossible to start a trial before Jan. 20, and delaying it further would allow the House to deliver a stinging indictment of the president without impeding Biden’s ability to form a Cabinet and confront the spiraling coronavirus crisis.
“Let’s give Presidentelect Biden the 100 days he needs to get his agenda off and running,” Clyburn, an influential ally of Biden, said in another interview on CNN.
The uncertainty underscored how little precedent those seeking to contain the president had to guide them. No president has been impeached in the final days of his term, or with the prospect of a trial after he leaves office — and certainly not just days after lawmakers themselves were attacked.
A twothirds majority is needed to convict and remove a president in the Senate. But if he were found guilty, a simple majority of the Senate could then bar Trump from holding office in the future.
Biden has tried to keep a distance from the impeachment issue. He spoke privately Friday with Pelosi and Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, the top Senate Democrat. But publicly he has said that the decision rests with Congress and that he intends to remain focused on the work of taking over the White House and the government’s coronavirus response.
At the White House, Trump remained out of sight for a fourth straight day and made no public comment on either the assault on the Capitol or the brewing impeachment threat.
In past furors, any anger within his own party tended to fade with passing days, but this time, the disenchantment among many Republicans appeared to be hardening, particularly with new videos emerging, including one showing the mob dragging a police officer down the steps outside the Capitol and beating him.
“The more time, images, and stories removed from Wednesday, the worse it gets,” Josh Holmes, a longtime adviser to Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, wrote on Twitter. “If you’re not in a white hot rage over what happened by now you’re not paying attention.”
It was that fury driving Democrats forward with stunning speed.
The fourpage impeachment article that had gained overwhelming support among Democrats — written by Reps. David Cicilline of Rhode Island, Jamie Raskin of Maryland and Ted Lieu of Torrance ( Los Angeles County) — was narrowly tailored to Trump’s role “willfully inciting violence against the government of the United
States.” Democrats involved in the process said they had drafted the text with input from some Republicans, though they declined to name them.
None was expected to join as a cosponsor before it was introduced Monday, but Democrats said several House Republicans were privately discussing voting to impeach. When the House impeached Trump in 2019 for a pressure campaign on Ukraine to smear Biden, not a single Republican supported the charges.
“I’ll vote the right way, you know, if I’m presented with that,” said GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois.
The House indictment, which lawmakers and aides cautioned was still subject to change, would squarely blame the rampage on Trump, stating that his encouragement was “consistent” with prior efforts to “subvert and obstruct” the election certification. That would include a Jan. 2 phone call pressuring Georgia’s secretary of state to “find” the votes he needed to claim victory in a state Biden clearly and legally won.
More details emerged Sunday about Trump’s role, which could shape the debate about impeachment. The president was deeply involved in the planning of the rally Wednesday where he exhorted thousands of followers to march to the Capitol and demonstrate strength. He personally helped select who would speak and what music would play, according to people briefed on how the event came together.