Ms. Nancy Pelosi Speaker of the House expressed on Sunday, that if Vice President Mike Pence makes no effort to remove President Donald Trump from office, it will be a first when the House moves to impeach him. The House is making every effort to get passed by unanimous consent a resolution by the Trump Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment which would remove him from office.
In the event the resolution does not get passed by unanimous consent, which undoubtedly will be so given the Republican resistance, it will then be determined on Tuesday by a full vote of the floor. If Vice President Pence does not respond within a time frame of 24 hours calling for the resolution the House will then move towards the impeachment. Ms. Pelosi has informed the House Democrats that impeachment legislation will be brought to the floor.
“In protecting our Constitution and our Democracy, we will act with urgency, because this President represents an imminent threat to both. As the days go by, the horror of the ongoing assault on our democracy perpetrated by this President is intensified and so is the immediate need for action,” Pelosi said.
House Democrats have promptly united around an impeachment resolution in the days following the riots at the Capitol where in five people including a US Capitol Police officer died.
It is understood that Democratic Reps. David Cicilline of Rhode Island, Jamie Raskin of Maryland and Ted Lieu of California are the forces behind introducing the impeachment resolution in the course of Monday’s pro-forma House session, which contains one article incriminating Trump with “incitement of insurrection.”
Cicilline also tweeted on Sunday evening that the resolution has more than 200 co-sponsors, nearly all of the Democratic caucus.
House Democrats are still discussing whether a vote to impeach Trump could be Tuesday or Wednesday, according to aides.
According to sources, discussions are underway with the House Democrats if the impeachment vote would be Tuesday or Wednesday.
On CBS’ Sunday evening “60 Minutes” interview, Pelosi expressed the idea of the 25th Amendment being invoked, “”because it gets rid of him,” and further went on to saying that “one of the motivations people have for advocating for impeachment” is to prevent Trump from holding office again.
“There’s strong support in the Congress for impeaching the President a second time,” she said.
House may wait to send any articles to the Senate
Clyburn, House Majority whip has indicated that the House Democrats might choose to wait until President -elect Joe Biden completes his first 100 days in office, prior to directing articles of impeachment to the Senate against President Trump. This move is said to be in an effort to give Joe Biden time to deal with his agenda as an impeachment trial will spread over a lengthy period of time.
“We’ll take the vote that we should take in the House, and (House Speaker Nancy Pelosi) will make the determination as to when would be the best time to get that vote and get the managers appointed and move that legislation over to the Senate,” Clyburn told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union.”
“It just so happens that if it didn’t go over there for 100 days, it could — let’s give President-elect Biden the 100 days he needs to get his agenda off and running, and maybe we’ll send the articles sometime after that,” the South Carolina Democrat added.
Biden aides work to ensure impeachment doesn’t become a distraction
While Joe Biden has made it clear that the Congress is to decide on how best to sanction Trump for him being the initiator in instigating civil terrorism on the Capitol, it is learnt from CNN that behind the scenes intent work is in progress by Democratic leaders anticipating to find a middle ground that would not get in the way of his new administration.
Submission of articles to the Senate is a point being discussed by the Advisers and the President-elect although there may be other ideas that have been discussed over the weekend which includes reprimanding Trump in a move that may be able to attract cross-party support than an impeachment might.
It is learnt that no discussions have taken place with regards to agreeing to do nothing and consenting to Trumps final days of presidency without reprimand from the Congress.
“The train has left the station on impeachment,” an official close to Biden told CNN. “Trying to stop it would not only fail, but put Biden on the wrong foot with progressives and most Democrats across the party.”
Conversations between Biden and Pelosi and many of their advisers have taken place throughout the weekend.
