Democrats move to impeach Trump again
Democrats said, Monday, they have started the process of impeaching President Donald Trump for a second time if Vice President Mike Pence and the cabinet do not remove him from office AFP reports.
Democrats introduced a resolution calling on Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment of the Constitution and remove Trump from the White House.
Republicans blocked an immediate vote on the resolution and Democrats followed up by introducing an article of impeachment of Trump for “incitement of insurrection” over his role in Wednesday’s storming of the US Capitol.
Top US Democrats were seeking to fast-track Donald Trump’s removal in the final days of his presidency, with a historic second impeachment looming this week if he refuses to resign over his supporters’ violent assault on the Capitol.
The ultimatum — which threatens to torpedo the single-term president’s future political ambitions — will make for a frenetic culmination of four years of controversy ahead of Joe Biden’s January 20 inauguration.
House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the top Democrat in Congress, had said there would be a resolution calling for the cabinet to remove Trump — who has been absent from the public spotlight for days — as unfit for office under the Constitution’s 25th amendment.
If Vice President Mike Pence does not agree to invoke the amendment, “we will proceed with bringing impeachment legislation” in the House, Pelosi said Sunday.
Trump has been largely silent in recent days — making few statements and holding no news conferences. Twitter, his favoured public platform, has banned him for language that could incite violence.
If the House again votes to impeach, Trump would be the first US leader to be formally charged for a second time with “high crimes and misdemeanours.”
Time is running short, Democrats likely have the votes in the House to impeach Trump again and could draw increased Republican support for the move.
But they are unlikely to muster the two-thirds majority needed to convict Trump in the 100-member Senate and remove him from office.
