US congressional calls build for Trump's removal, with impeachment raised as a possibility
US lawmakers may move next week to impeach President Donald Trump for a second time, as outrage about the deadly storming of the US Capitol by violent Trump supporters continued to engulf his administration on Friday.
Assistant House speaker Katherine Clark, a Massachusetts Democrat, confirmed that the House planned to move imminently on impeachment proceedings, a day after speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer called for the move.
Clark told CNN that if Vice-President Mike Pence and Trump's cabinet do not use the US Constitution's 25th Amendment to remove the president from office, lawmakers will proceed with impeachment "as early as mid-next week".
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"Donald Trump needs to be removed from office, and we are going to proceed with every tool that we have to make sure that that happens to protect our democracy," Clark said.
Articles of impeachment drawn up by Democratic Representatives David Cicilline, Ted Lieu and Jamie Raskin will be introduced on Monday, Reuters reported, citing sources. A copy of the document circulating among lawmakers charges Trump with "inciting violence against the government of the United States", according to the report.
Pelosi told Democratic lawmakers on Friday that she had spoken with the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, the president's top military adviser, to discuss how an "unstable" President Trump could be prevented from "initiating military hostilities or accessing the launch codes and ordering a nuclear strike".
"The situation of this unhinged president could not be more dangerous," she said.
US Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have called for the removal of President Donald Trump either by the cabinet invoking the 25th amendment or through the Congress taking up articles of impeachment. Photo: EPA-EFE alt=US Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have called for the removal of President Donald Trump either by the cabinet invoking the 25th amendment or through the Congress taking up articles of impeachment. Photo: EPA-EFE
Congress went into recess after certifying the presidential election results in the early hours of Thursday morning. To move forward with impeachment or any other proceedings, members would need to be called back to Washington.
Trump's term ends on January 20, when Joe Biden will be sworn in as the 46th US president. On Friday morning, Trump said on Twitter that he would not attend Biden's inauguration. If so, he would be the first president to skip his successor's inauguration since Andrew Johnson snubbed Ulysses S Grant in 1869.
Biden called Trump's decision not to attend "one of the few things he and I have ever agreed on", but said he welcomed Pence's attendance.
After inciting his followers at a rally on Wednesday to lay siege to the Capitol - an attack that led to five deaths, including a police officer - Trump offered his most explicit recognition that he lost to Biden in November's election in a video he released late on Thursday. Though he did not concede or even mention Biden, he acknowledged that "a new administration will be inaugurated".
But the widespread anger over Trump's actions leading up to, during and immediately after the assault on the Capitol showed no signs of diminishing on Friday in Washington.
Trump supporters entering the Capitol on Wednesday. Photo: Getty Images via TNS alt=Trump supporters entering the Capitol on Wednesday. Photo: Getty Images via TNS
The US Capitol Police, the agency responsible for protecting lawmakers and the Capitol complex, confirmed late on Thursday that Officer Brian Sicknick had died from injuries sustained while responding to the attack.
"He returned to his division office and collapsed," a Capitol Police news release said.
Lawmakers are questioning how such a massive security breach could occur, especially while the vice-president and a joint session of Congress convened to formally certify Biden's Electoral College victory.
As more details emerge from Wednesday's chaotic events, there are signs that at least some insurgents may have intended to attack and even kidnap senior members of Congress. Photographs appeared to show some attackers inside the Senate chamber holding bundles of zip-tie handcuffs. And Representative James Clyburn, the House majority whip, said on Friday that some prowling the hallways apparently knew to seek him out in an unmarked office where he works, and bypassed a separate office with his name on it.
On Friday, the exodus of top officials from the administration also continued.
CNBC reported that White House Economic Adviser Larry Kudlow said he had no plans to resign, but would use some of his remaining vacation time over the last 12 days of the administration.
Trump's Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, said she would resign on Friday, the second member of the president's cabinet to step down following Wednesday's violence.
"There is no mistaking the impact your rhetoric had on the situation, and it is the inflection point for me," she said in a resignation letter sent to Trump on Thursday.
Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao - who is also the wife of Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell - resigned on Thursday.
Their decisions to leave comes as pressure from Congress grows for the cabinet and Pence to invoke the 25th amendment, which is essentially an emergency procedure to remove a president when he is no longer capable of carrying out his duties.
Meanwhile, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo - a staunch Trump ally who expressed confidence in a "smooth transition to a second Trump administration" days after the election was called in Biden's favour - met with Antony Blinken, the president-elect's choice to replace Pompeo'.
The meeting was held "to facilitate an orderly transition, and to ensure American interests are protected abroad," a State Department representative said. "Their meeting was very productive. Secretary Pompeo and Secretary-nominee Blinken, as well as their teams, will continue to work together on behalf of America throughout the transition".
Lawmakers from both parties have called on Pence and the cabinet to invoke the clause, which has never been used under such circumstances. No US president has ever been impeached twice either.
Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives in December 2019 on charges of abusing the power of his office and obstructing Congress over allegations he pressured Ukraine to help smear Biden and boost his chances of re-election. The US Senate, controlled by Republicans, voted to acquit him in February 2020.
US President Barack Obama greeting President-elect Donald Trump at inauguration ceremonies for Trump on January 20, 2017. Trump said on Friday he would not attend the inauguration of his successor, Joe Biden. Photo: Reuters alt=US President Barack Obama greeting President-elect Donald Trump at inauguration ceremonies for Trump on January 20, 2017. Trump said on Friday he would not attend the inauguration of his successor, Joe Biden. Photo: Reuters
On Friday, Senator Ben Sasse, a Nebraska Republican, told CBS News that he would "definitely consider" any articles of impeachment against the president if they come to the Senate.
House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, a Trump loyalist who led the charge in the House of Representatives to overturn election results in some states where Trump lost, acknowledged Biden as president-elect for the first time in a statement on Friday, but said he opposed impeaching Trump.
Facebook has blocked Trump from posting on its platform because of the risk that he will incite more violence. Twitter - Trump's other primary line of direct communication with his millions of supporters - had blocked Trump from posting for 12 hours after Wednesday's violent events but lifted the ban on Thursday.
On Friday morning, without distinguishing between those who had attacked the Capitol and those who had not, Trump wrote that his followers "will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future".
"They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!" he wrote.
Shortly before Trump's tweets, Senator Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, called on Twitter to suspend Trump's account again "in the interest of our national security and public safety".
Additional reporting by Robert Delaney
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
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