McConnell privately backs impeachment

Pence refuses to invoke 25th Amendment; more Republicans join effort

WASHINGTON — Sen. Mitch McConnell has concluded President Donald Trump committed impeachable offenses and believes that Democrats’ move to impeach him will make it easier to purge Trump from the party, according to people familiar with McConnell’s thinking.

The private assessment of McConnell, the most powerful Republican in Congress, emerged on the eve of a House vote to formally charge Trump with inciting violence against the country for his role in whipping up a mob of his supporters who stormed the Capitol while lawmakers met to formalize President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.

In a sign that the dam could be breaking against Trump in a party that has long been unfailingly loyal to him, Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the No. 3 Republican in the House, announced her intention to support the single charge of high crimes and misdemeanors, as other party leaders declined to formally lobby rank-and-file lawmakers to oppose it.

“The president of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack,” Cheney said in a statement. “There has never been a greater betrayal by a president of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution.”

Even before McConnell’s position was known and Cheney had announced her plans, advisers to the Senate Republican leader had already privately speculated that a dozen Republican senators — and possibly more — could ultimately vote to convict Trump in a Senate trial that would follow his impeachment by the House. Seventeen Republicans would be needed to join Democrats in finding him guilty. After that, it would take a simple majority to disqualify Trump from ever again holding public office.

In the House, Rep. Kevin McCarthy,

the minority leader and one of Trump’s most steadfast allies in Congress, has asked other Republicans whether he ought to call on Trump to resign in the aftermath of last week’s riot at the Capitol, according to three Republican officials briefed on the conversations. While he has said he is personally opposed to impeachment, he and other party leaders did not mount an official effort to defeat the push, and McCarthy was working Tuesday to build support for a censure resolution to rebuke the president for his actions.

Taken together, the stances of Congress’ two top Republicans — neither of whom has said publicly that Trump should resign or be impeached — reflected the politically fraught and fast-moving nature of the crisis the party faces. After four years of backing the president at nearly every turn and refusing to condemn even his most extreme behavior, party leaders were racing to distance themselves from a president many of them now regard as a political and constitutional threat.

McCarthy backed the electoral challenges Republicans lodged last week during Congress’ electoral count, voting twice to overturn Biden’s victory in key swing states even after the siege at the Capitol. McConnell had broken with Trump just as the rioters were breaching the building, warning of a descent into a “death spiral” for democracy if the efforts were to prevail.

Trump has shown no trace of contrition. On Tuesday, in his first public appearance since the siege of the Capitol, he told reporters that his remarks to supporters at a rally that day — in which he exhorted them to go to the Capitol and “fight” so Republicans would reject the election results — had been “totally appropriate.” It was the specter of his impeachment, he said, that was “causing tremendous anger.” But with Twitter having suspended his account for good, Trump no longer has his favorite weapon to train on lawmakers who cross him, which could curtail the blowback they face for voting against him.

Nonetheless, Trump’s advisers used their own Twitter feeds to highlight his hold on the party’s voters to keep Republicans in line. Jason Miller, a senior adviser, tweeted from an internal poll: “80% of Trump voters and 76% of Republicans in Battleground states are less likely to vote for a Member of Congress/U.S. Senator who votes for impeachment.”

The Republican Party’s rapid turn against Trump unfolded as the House met into the night Tuesday to debate and vote on a resolution formally calling on Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment to strip the president of his powers, a move that Pence shot down hours before the House passed it along party lines.

In a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Pence argued that the amendment was meant to address medical emergencies or presidential “incapacity” and that using it as “a means of punishment or usurpation” would set a “terrible precedent.” In a veiled reference to impeachment, he urged Congress “to avoid actions that would further divide and inflame the passions of the moment” and pledged work in “good faith” with Biden’s transition team.

“Last week, I did not yield to pressure to exert power beyond my constitutional authority to determine the outcome of the election, and I will not now yield to efforts in the House of Representatives to play political games at a time so serious in the life of our nation,” Pence wrote.

With Pence refusing their call, Democrats planned a Wednesday vote on a single article of impeachment charging Trump with “inciting violence against the government of the United States.”

The White House expected roughly two dozen Republicans to support the charge, according to a senior administration official who insisted on anonymity to share a private assessment. Along with Cheney, Reps. John Katko of New York, Adam Kinzinger of Illinois and Fred Upton of Michigan announced they would support the charge. Just over a year ago, House Republicans rallied unanimously against Democrats’ first impeachment of Trump.