Democratic leaders push to activate mechanism that allows immediate impeachment of Trump

Donald Trump should not stay one day longer than necessary in the Oval Office.

That's how forceful they have been the speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, and the leader of the minority in the Senate, the democrat Chuck Schumer.

Describing Donald Trump as a "very dangerous" person, both leaders urged Vice President Mike Pence and Trump's Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, which was ratified in 1967 after the assassination of John F. Kennedy as a procedure to replace a president "who is not capable of carrying out his powers and duties" in the White House.

"It is an emergency," said the Democrat with the highest rank in Congress and third authority in the state, a day after the president's supporters stormed the Capitol at the urging of the president, entrenched in the White House.

Pelosi was unequivocal in describing the insurrection as an "attempted coup."

Schumer had previously stated that "the fastest and most effective way - which can be done today - to remove the president from power would be for the vice president to invoke the 25th Amendment with immediate effect."

"If the vice president and the Cabinet refuse to take that step, Congress should meet again [now in recess] and launch the

impeachment

[

impeachment

] against the president," Schumer said.

Yesterday, American democracy came under attack - but we refuse to be bullied into abandoning our duty to work #ForThePeople.

https://t.co/6KoVAVbZh7

- Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) January 7, 2021

The petition comes after the barbarism that occurred in the nation's Capitol on Wednesday, which has led leading Democrats to the conclusion that Trump is too dangerous to continue to lead the country until the next day 20, when Joe Biden will be sworn in. as the new president of the United States.

Biden is silent on such a procedure for the moment.

The initiative was not new.

Members of the House Judiciary Committee sent a letter to Pence late Wednesday night stating that it had become clear that Trump “was not in his right mind and was unable to process and accept the results of the elections in 2020 ”.

"Trump's willingness to incite violence and social unrest to reverse the electoral outcome is a clear example of this."

Despite the fact that the 25th amendment has never been used under that circumstance - it was written for cases in which a president could not fulfill his functions due to death or illness - the experts quoted by the US media consider that it would be the fastest way and realistic to remove Trump from the White House before the next day 20 instead of raising a new

impeachment

.

How would this amendment be applied?

For Pence and a majority of the Republican Cabinet to declare that Trump is unfit to govern, they have to send a letter to Congress informing about their decision.

At that time, Pence would assume the presidency of the country.

But, and this is a big but, the amendment also gives Trump the power to appeal the decision in writing to Congress, which would demonstrate his physical ability to govern and immediately return his powers to him.

In that case, Pence and the entire Cabinet have four days to rebut the president's arguments and overrule him.

According to

The Washington Post,

it is unclear who would hold power in those four long days.

If Pence and the Cabinet fail to remove Trump from the presidency in this way, that is when Congress comes into play.

Once the vice president's appeal is received, the Capitol has 48 hours to decide whether to remove the president.

From there the legislators have 21 days to make a decision.

A decisive factor is that Pence's decision to remove Trump from the presidency must be approved by a two-thirds majority in both Houses of Congress, which does not seem possible due to the large number of Republican representatives who voted in the early hours of the Thursday supporting Trump's objections to the electoral college vote results.

Another possible scenario is that House and Senate leaders intentionally postpone that vote, stopping the clock that counts the hours until the 20th and thus leaving Pence in power until he can be handed over to Biden on inauguration day. .

During all that time, Vice President Mike Pence, former Governor and former Congressman from Indiana, would be the President of the United States.

The Republican who stands up to Trump

Only one Republican joined the Democratic initiative to invoke the 25th Amendment yesterday.

"It is time to invoke the 25th Amendment and put an end to this nightmare," declared Congressman Adam Kinzinger, representing Illinois, thus becoming the first Republican to call for the president's revocation.

"The president is not fit for the position and the president is not well," he declared harshly.

"I have been in combat and this is political combat," said the 42-year-old Republican who recalled that Trump maintains control of the nuclear codes that would explode world geopolitics in the hands of a madman.

Adam Kinzinger, an Air Force veteran, was the first to abandon the paralysis of his party colleagues.

“I need to be able to look at myself in the mirror every morning.

I don't need this job, ”Kinzinger declared, despite rumors that he is running for governor for his state.

"It is time to look forward, I have been here for ten years, but doing the right thing is what brings peace to your life," he concluded.

Subscribe here to the

newsletter

about the elections in the United States