Democratic leaders call for Trump's removal from
office
Pelosi and Schumer say if president isn’t removed via
25th amendment he should be impeached for a second time
Julian
Borger in Washington
Fri 8 Jan
2021 03.34 GMTFirst published on Thu 7 Jan 2021 20.58 GMT
Democratic
leaders have called for Donald Trump to be forced from office before his term
ends on 20 January for his role in inciting the mob attack on the US Congress,
in what his successor, Joe Biden, described as “one of the darkest days” in US
history.
The
president-elect said Wednesday’s insurrection was carried out by “domestic
terrorists” and accused his predecessor of unleashing an “all-out attack” on
the country’s democratic institutions
As a new
7ft fence was belatedly erected around the Capitol on Thursday, an inquiry was
launched into why the seat of US democracy was left so poorly defended against
a predictable assault.
But the
principal political focus was on the dangers of allowing a president widely
seen as being the ultimate instigator of Wednesday’s mob attack to retain power
in the remaining two weeks before Biden’s inauguration.
Chuck
Schumer, who is the incoming Senate majority leader following the Democratic
sweep of Georgia, and the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, called for Trump to be
removed through the 25th amendment to the constitution, which allows for a
president to be replaced by their vice-president, if they become incapable of
doing their job.
Failing
that, they argued he should be impeached for a second time.
Pelosi
described Trump as “a very dangerous person who should not continue in office”.
“This is
urgent. This is an emergency of the highest magnitude,” Pelosi said.
Several
Democratic members of Congress drafted new articles of impeachment for inciting
Wednesday’s violence and deliberating subverting US democracy.
“What
happened at the US Capitol yesterday was an insurrection against the United
States, incited by President Trump. This president must not hold office one day
longer. The quickest and most effective way – it can be done today – to remove
this president from office would be for the vice-president to immediately
invoke the 25th amendment,” Schumer said in a tweet.
“If the
vice-president and the cabinet refuse to stand up, Congress must reconvene to
impeach President Trump.”
Charges for
Trump’s second impeachment were drawn up by several Democratic congress members
– Ilhan Omar, Ted Lieu, Jamie Raskin and David Cicilline – accusing him of
“wilfully inciting violence against the government of the United States” and
warning he remained “a threat to national security, democracy and the
constitution, if allowed to remain in office”.
Use of the
25th amendment, on the grounds unfitness for office is a form of incapacity,
would rely on the cooperation of Republicans including the vice-president, Mike
Pence, who would take over the administration in its final two weeks. That
seemed unlikely on Thursday.
Adam
Kinzinger of Illinois, a frequent Republican critic of Trump, joined the calls
for the 25th amendment to be invoked, saying in a video message: “The president
must now relinquish control of the executive branch voluntarily or
involuntarily.”
But the GOP
leadership did not appear sufficiently shocked to jettison their leader, who
was reportedly warmly received on a conference call with the Republican National
Committee on Thursday morning.
There was a
handful of resignations by second-tier officials, including the education
secretary, Betsy DeVos; the transportation secretary, Elaine Chao (married to
the current Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell); the deputy national
security adviser, Matthew Pottinger; the Northern Ireland envoy (and former
White House chief of staff) Mick Mulvaney; and the first lady’s spokesperson,
Stephanie Grisham. But there was no sign yet of a sweeping exodus or mutiny
that would be required to force the president from office.
Trump
loyalists in Congress and on Fox News quickly began circulating groundless
conspiracy theories that disguised members of the leftist antifa movement had
provoked the insurrection.
Trump spent
most of the day in silence, before releasing a video on Thursday evening in
which he tried to shift tone and condemn the violence he incited. In the video,
posted to Twitter, the president also came his closest yet to admitting defeat,
acknowledging that “a new administration” would take over on 20 January and
pledging a peaceful transition of power.
The White
House press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, read a brief statement “on behalf of
the entire White House”, in which she condemned the “violent rioters” while
attempting to equate them to the Black Lives Matter protests in the summer. She
did not mention Trump, and refused to take any questions from reporters.
Facebook
imposed an indefinite ban on Trump, whose campaign has long used the platform
to spread disinformation and conspiracy theories. The decision may also have
been influenced by the Democratic success in taking control of the Senate.
Former
administration officials were scathing about the president’s role, most notably
the recently departed attorney general, William Barr, who said Trump was guilty
of “betrayal of his office and supporters” by “orchestrating a mob to pressure
Congress.”.
But current
Republican leaders were much more guarded. McConnell said the blame for the
attack lay with the “unhinged criminals” who carried it out “and with those who
incited them” but did not name the president.
Lindsey
Graham, one of Trump’s top congressional allies, called on the president to
accept his own role in the violence, saying that Trump “needs to understand
that his actions were the problem, not the solution”.
But asked
about calls for Trump to be removed from office, the South Carolina senator
said: “I do not believe that is appropriate at this point. I’m looking for a
peaceful transfer of power.”
A YouGov
poll of Republicans found 45% of them supported the storming of the Capitol, 2%
more than those who opposed it.
At least
some of Trump’s leading supporters abroad sought to distance themselves,
including Boris Johnson, who said it was “completely wrong” for Trump to
“encourage people to storm the Capitol” and cast doubt on the election result.
In Washington,
law enforcement agencies tried to respond to widespread outrage over the
apparent impunity of the insurrectionists and the lack of adequate defences for
a vital organ of government.
Michael
Sherwin, the acting US attorney for the District of Columbia, said that rioters
could face charges including seditious conspiracy and insurrection.
He also
implied that Trump himself could be investigated for his comments before the
mob stormed the Capitol.
Asked if
prosecutors would examine the president’s incendiary comments at a rally less
than an hour before the Capitol was breached, Sherwin told reporters: “We are
looking at all actors here, not only the people that went into the building,
but … were there others that maybe assisted or facilitated or played some
ancillary role in this. We will look at every actor and all criminal charges.”
More than
90 people have been arrested by police in Washington, Sherwin said, adding that
prosecutors would bring “the most maximum charges we can”.
McConnell
said the failure to protect the US Capitol was a “massive failure” and called
for a full investigation. The congressional sergeant-at-arms, responsible for
overall security in the building, resigned on Thursday but Pelosi called for
the chief of the Capitol police, Steven Sund, to step down as well.
Sund issued
a statement saying the storming of the legislature was “unlike any I have ever
experienced in my 30 years in law enforcement here” and argued that his
officers had been spread thin by having to respond to two pipe bombs found near
the Capitol at the same time as the assault.
Pelosi also
said she had not received a satisfactory reply from the defense secretary,
Christopher Miller, on why the national guard was so slow to respond, arriving
in significant numbers only after the Capitol was occupied.
The army
secretary, Ryan McCarthy, told reporters that he had expected Wednesday’s
events to be like other recent protests, adding that Pentagon officials had not
imagined a breach of the Capitol in their “wildest imagination”.
The head of
the Washington metropolitan police department also claimed: “There was no
intelligence that suggests that there would be a breach of the US Capitol.”
Critics
responded that those responsible had telegraphed their intentions in advance.
“It was all
in the open on public social media sites, not to mention in the President’s
speech,” John Sipher, a former senior CIA officer, commented on Twitter.
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