Moves to impeach Trump
WASHINGTON: Democrats plan to bring forward articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump over his actions before the US Capitol siege.
With only days left in his presidency, Donald Trump has been silenced by Twitter, shunned by a growing number of Republican officials and faces a renewed drive to remove him from office after he incited his supporters to storm the US Capitol last week.
Now in another blow to his demand for blind loyalty, Vicepresident Mike Pence says he will attend Presidentelect Joe Biden’s inauguration, a senior official said yesterday.
Trump said on Saturday he would not attend Biden’s inauguration on January 20.
Democrat Senator Ted Lieu tweeted there were plans to bring forward articles of impeachment today.
The articles had drawn 190 cosponsors as of yesterday.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the top congressional Democrat, threatened to impeach Trump for a historic second time unless he resigned ‘‘immediately’’, a move Trump is unlikely to consider.
If found guilty, Trump would lose benefits enjoyed by expresidents, such as security and pension, and would be barred from running again.
Pelosi also asked members to draft legislation aimed at invoking the US Constitution’s 25th Amendment, which allows the removal of a president unable to fulfil the duties of the office.
The effort to oust Trump from the White House has drawn scattered support from Republicans.
Democrats have pressed Pence to consider the 25th Amendment, but a Pence adviser said he opposed the idea.
The odds Trump will actually be removed before January 20, when Biden is sworn in, remain long. Any impeachment in the House would trigger a trial in the Republicancontrolled Senate, which is scheduled to be in recess until January 19 and has already acquitted Trump once before.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell sent a memo to Republican senators suggesting a trial would not begin until Trump was out of office, a source familiar with the document said.
A conviction in the Senate requires a twothirds vote.
Democrats will take control of the Senate later this month, after Georgia certifies two runoff elections won by Democrats.
Twitter permanently cut off Trump’s personal account and access to his nearly 90 million followers on Saturday, citing the risk of further incitement of violence, three days after Trump exhorted thousands of supporters to march on the Capitol as Congress met to certify Biden’s election victory.
The resulting assault left a police officer and four others dead, as rioters breached the Capitol and forced lawmakers into hiding for safety.
Trump initially praised his supporters but later condemned their violence in a video. The decision to call for calm and a smooth transition of power came at the urging of aides, sources said.
Trump later used the official @POTUS government account to lash out at Twitter, vowing that the 75 million ‘‘great patriots’’ who voted for him ‘‘will not be SILENCED!’’.
He said he was considering building his own social media platform. Twitter quickly deleted those posts and soon after suspended the Trump campaign account as well.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted late last week found 57% of Americans want Trump removed immediately from office.
Trump allies, including Senator Lindsey Graham and House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy urged Democrats to stop any impeachment effort in the name of unity.
Impeaching him ‘‘would only serve to further divide the country’’, White House spokesman Judd Deere said.
West Virginia state politician Derrick Evans, who posted videos online showing himself pushing his way inside the Capitol during the riot, was arrested on Saturday by the FBI and charged with entering restricted federal property. Evans sent a letter of resignation to the West Virginia Governor Jim Justice and apologised. — AAP/AP