Trump will be impeached if he does not leave the office even after helping a mob’s deadly riot in the U.S. capitol, Nancy Pelosi, the House Speaker, told the House on Friday.
The California Democrat further said in her statement that members of the House hope that the president will instantly resign after a call with her caucus.
“If the President does not leave, then the Rules Committee has been instructed to get ready to go forward with 25th Amendment legislation of Congressman Jamie Raskin and a motion for impeachment,” Pelosi said.
The House Rules Committee will likely accelerate impeachment dialogue without committee trials or votes. Those initiatives would slow down the course only days before Trump leaves office on January 20.
Pelosi’s separate bill, drawn up by Jamie Raskin, a U.S. Representative from Maryland, would lead to a commission as part of the Cabinet and Vice President Mike Pence’s proper steps to eliminate the president from office.
Trump has given no sign of stepping down. Pence reportedly disagrees, invoking the 25th Amendment.
The House has planned to impeach Trump an unprecedented second time after the president’s devotees on Wednesday stormed the Capitol. That caused a delay in President-elect Joe Biden’s election win formal count by Congress. Nearly five people, including a Police Officer at the U.S. Capitol, died in an attack on the legislature.
Raskin and Representatives Ted Lieu, D-Calif., and David Cicilline, D-R.I, proposed to present at least one article of impeachment on Monday related to Trump inflaming the riots, according to a report by NBC News.
Before they stormed the Capitol, the president spoke to his devotees, discussing conspiracy theories that large-scale fraud cost him a loss in the election. He spoke to his supporters about results until he said a “new administration” would start executing operations on Thursday.
Trump “engaged in high crimes and Misbehaviors by intentionally provoking violence against the U.S. Government,” says a draft article of impeachment acquired by NBC News.
The article continues to mention that the President “threatened the democratic system’s integrity, risked a coordinated branch of government, and interfered with a peaceful transition of power,” forsaking “his trust as President, to the evident injury of the people of the United States of America.”
The article’s content could change before Monday. In a Twitter statement, Lieu said the measure has over 150 cosponsors and that “doing nothing is not acceptable.”
The chamber could proceed to impeach Trump “as soon as mid-next week,” Congress Woman Rep. Katherine Clark of Massachusetts told CNN.
Democrats have demanded Trump’s removal from office as they warn he could further put more lives in danger or degrade democratic institutions during his finishing days as the president.
Judd Deere, White House spokesman, said in a statement on Friday that impeaching “a President with twelve days left in his term will contribute to dividing our great country further.”
It is still unclear whether Democrats have enough time to remove the president before the day of the Inauguration or how many Republicans will join them in this development.
Kevin McCarthy, the House Minority Leader, who voted to object to counting Biden’s Pennsylvania and Arizona electoral successes after the mob stormed the Capitol, said he does not want Trump’s impeachment as it will “only divide the country more.”
Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said that raising the 25th Amendment, which needs support from the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet, would be the most effective approach to ensure that Trump leaves the office.
Officials, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, discussed the prospect of removing Trump; they agreed not to take the step for now.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., tweeted Friday that the president’s impeachment now would “do more harm than good.” He said the effort “would be a dangerous precedent for the prospect of U.S. presidency.”