DM Monitoring
WASHINGTON: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Sunday the House will go ahead with impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump as she pushes Vice President Mike Pence to invoke constitutional authority to remove Trump from office following last week’s deadly assault on the Capitol.
On Monday, Pelosi’s leadership team will seek a vote on a resolution calling on the vice president and Cabinet officials to invoke the 25th Amendment, a constitutional provision that allows the vice president and the Cabinet to remove the president from office if they deem him unable to perform his duties. Pence and the Cabinet would have 24 hours to act before the House would move towards impeachment.
“We will act with urgency, because this President represents an imminent threat,” Pelosi said in a letter late on Sunday to colleagues. “The horror of the ongoing assault on our democracy perpetrated by this President is intensified and so is the immediate need for action.” A stunning end to Trump’s final 10 days in office was under way as politicians warned of the damage the president could still do before President-elect Joe Biden was inaugurated on January 20.
Trump, holed up at the White House, was increasingly isolated after a mob rioted in the Capitol in support of his false claims of election fraud. Five people were killed in the violence at the Capitol Building in Washington, DC. A Republican senator, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, joined Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska in calling for Trump to “resign and go away as soon as possible”. During an interview, Pelosi invoked the Watergate era when Republicans in the Senate told President Richard Nixon, “It’s over.”
