Impeachment: House of Democrats Pushing for 25th Amendment

House Republicans have blocked the immediate consideration of a bill that Democrats had tried to push. It calls on Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment. Through this, House Democrats are hoping to remove President Donald Trump from his office following the riot at the Capitol building last week.

Bill Calls to Invoke 25th Amendment

On Monday, GOP Rep. Alex Mooney of West Virginia blocked the consideration of the said bill, which Rep. Jaime Raskin introduced. However, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also said that she would bring it to the floor if getting the unanimous consent was blocked.

“As our next step, we will move forward with bringing impeachment legislation to the Floor. The President’s threat to America is urgent, and so too will be our action,” Pelosi said.

Additionally, in a statement, the house speaker said: “The President represents an imminent threat to our Constitution, our Country and the American people, and he must be removed from office immediately.”

Pelosi also said that Republicans who blocked the said bill is “enabling the President’s unhinged, unstable and deranged acts of sedition to continue.”

“Their complicity endangers America, erodes our Democracy, and it must end,” the house speaker then added.

Pelosi then remarked that House Democrats are further calling “the Vice President to respond within 24 hours after passage.”

Democrats Urge Pence to Invoke the 25th Amendment

Rep. Steny Hoyer, the House majority leader, said during a call with the House Democratic Caucus that they need to start planning to go back to Washington on Tuesday so that they can consider the resolution about the 25th Amendment. The house majority leader also said votes will happen on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at the earliest.

Democrats from both the House of Representatives and the Senate have called for Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment.

Last week, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, along with other democrats, urged Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment. They said it was the “quickest and most effective way” to boot Trump out of office.

Although, Schumer did warn that if Pence and the Cabinet would not do this, it’s possible for Congress to “reconvene to impeach the president.”

Within the 25th Amendment, there is a section that says the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet can declare that a president is “unable” to carry out his job.

However, it seems Pence is not involved in talks about invoking the 25th Amendment, as per Fox News.

The Storming of the Capitol

The calls for the president’s removal come after his speech at a rally on Wednesday caused his supporters to storm the Capitol building. In his speech, he told supporters that he will “never concede” from his electoral fight. He also insisted on saying the election was “stolen” from him and claimed that he had a “landslide” victory.

Additionally, during his speech, he, once again, put pressure on Pence. He claimed that Pence should not certify the results of the 2020 elections. Pence should send it “back to the states,” according to the President. And if the vice president does, Trump said he would stay in office for another four years.

The president made these claims in a rally which happened just a few hours before a joint session of Congress. The said session was aiming to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election. As legislators from both the House and Senate raised concerns regarding a few electoral votes, they had to call for a recess and evacuate as Trump’s supporters breach police lines and mob the Capitol building.

As per the DC police, this resulted in four deaths and at least 70 arrests.

Congress Certify Election Results

Once the Capitol was secured, Congress reconvened and certified the votes on early Thursday. This set President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in stone.

Following this, President Trump said that an “orderly transition” of power will happen.

Through White House deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino’s Twitter account, Trump released a statement early Thursday morning. In it, he said: “Even though I totally disagree with the outcome of the election, and the facts bear me out, nevertheless there will be an orderly transition on January 20th.”

He added: “I have always said we would continue our fight to ensure that only legal votes were counted. While this represents the end of the greatest first term in presidential history, it's only the beginning of our fight to Make America Great Again!”

New Article of Impeachment Introduced

Despite this, House Democrats, namely Reps. Ted Lieu, David Cicilline, and Jamie Raskin, have drafted an article of impeachment. In the article introduced on Monday, they cited “Incitement to Insurrection.”

The article reads in part: “In his conduct while President of the United States—and in violation of his constitutional oath faithfully to execute the office of President of the United States, and to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in violation of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, Donald John Trump engaged in high Crimes and Misdemeanors by inciting violence against the Government of the United States.”

In the article, they claim that prior to the Jan. 6 session of Congress, where members were to certify the election results, the president “repeatedly issued false statements asserting that the presidential election results were the product of widespread fraud and should not be accepted by the American people or certified by State or Federal officials.”

Meanwhile, on Monday, Hoyer announced that the House of Representatives will meet on the morning of Wednesday. He said they will consider the article of impeachment.

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