Dems give ultimatum
Monday filing planned for new Trump article
House Democrats have given President Donald Trump a deadline: resign by Monday or be the first president to face impeachment twice.
Just days after a deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has told the Rules Committee to be prepared to initiate the proceedings.
Trump held a rally Wednesday as Congress was to certify a count of the Electoral College’s vote on the Nov. 3 election. Shortly after, a mob ravaged the Capitol, sending lawmakers into hiding and leaving five people dead.
WASHINGTON – House Democrats plan to introduce an article of impeachment as early as Monday alleging the president should be removed from office days after a violent pro-Trump mob stormed the U.S. Capitol in a deadly riot.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi gave the green light to beginning the impeachment process following an “hourslong conversation ... unlike any other” with her caucus.
“It is the hope of Members that the President will immediately resign. But if he does not, I have instructed the Rules Committee to be prepared to move forward with ... a motion for impeachment,” she said in a statement issued by her office Friday evening.
House leaders are still discussing how best to proceed against Trump, who would be the first president to be impeached twice. In December 2019, the House approved an action based on his efforts to pressure Ukraine to help him win re-election against Joe Biden. The Senate later acquitted him.
Democrats could introduce their impeachment article as soon as Monday, according to a person familiar with the effort.
The likeliest vehicle appears to be four-page article alleging “incitement of insurrection” circulated Friday by lawmakers including Rep. David Cicilline, D-Rhode Island, and Rep. Ted Lieu, D
California, which labels Trump “a threat to national security, democracy, and the Constitution.”
The article accuses Trump of engaging in “High Crimes and Misdemeanors by willfully inciting violence against the Government of the United States.” It alleges he egged on thousands of supporters Wednesday to march to the Capitol in support of lawmakers trying to stop the count of Electoral College votes recognizing Biden as the winner of the Nov. 3 election.
Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minnesota, has sponsored a similar article.
Biden on Friday said whether to impeach Trump before his term ends is “a decision for Congress to make.”
“I’ve thought for a long, long time that President Trump wasn’t fit to hold the job. That’s why I ran,” Biden said. “What
the Congress decides to do is for them to decide.”
“President Trump gravely endangered the security of the United States and its institutions of government,” the House article reads. “He threatened the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful transition of power, and imperiled a coordinate branch of government. He thereby betrayed his trust as President, to the manifest injury of the people of the United States.”
If introduced Monday, the House could approve the article as soon as midweek. It would head to the Senate for a trial, where it would take at least two-thirds of the members voting for conviction for Trump to be removed .