Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday called on the vice president to immediately begin the process of ousting President Donald Trump, an extraordinary statement that gives weight to a Democratic effort to remove him from office.

“This is urgent, this is an emergency of the highest magnitude,” Pelosi told reporters in the Capitol, one day after Trump’s supporters stormed the complex and spurred dozens of Democrats to call for Trump’s removal. “Yesterday the president of the United States incited an armed insurrection against America.”

Pelosi said if Vice President Mike Pence did not take action to invoke the 25th Amendment, House Democrats could quickly act to impeach Trump, and did not rule out bringing the House back into session next week, when both chambers are slated to be in recess.

Democrats could swiftly create a commission to begin the process of removing Trump through the 25th Amendment, or take the unprecedented step of impeaching a sitting president for the second time in one term.

“While there’s only 13 days left, any day can be a horror show for America,” Pelosi said.

But she said the “best route” would be for Pence to initiate the action himself, which would involve the vice president and a majority of either the Cabinet, or another body “established by law” — which could include Congress.

Pelosi told reporters she hoped to hear from Pence Thursday on whether he was willing to act and if not, she was prepared to move quickly in the House. Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer tried to reach Pence by phone earlier Thursday but weren't able to, Schumer said in a separate press conference in New York. Schumer, too, called on Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment and said Congress should move to impeach if that did not happen.

“What happened at the U.S. Capitol yesterday was an insurrection against the United States, incited by the president. This president should not hold office one day longer,” Schumer said in a statement.

“The quickest and most effective way,” he said, would be to invoke the 25th Amendment. “If the Vice President and the Cabinet refuse to stand up, Congress should reconvene to impeach the president,” Schumer said.

The comments to call for Trump’s immediate removal with less than two weeks remaining on his term are remarkable for Pelosi — second in line to the presidency — who had long resisted impeachment before the House went ahead with the proceedings last fall.

The once-unthinkable push for a second impeachment vote had been steadily gaining ground across the House Democratic Caucus, with members incensed at Trump’s role in the deadly chaos on Wednesday that gripped Capitol Hill — and put the lives of themselves and their staff at danger, according to multiple lawmakers and aides.

Shortly before Pelosi’s press conference, House Democratic Caucus Chair Hakeem Jeffries also endorsed the move, in what many saw as a sign that the House could, indeed, take some kind of action next week.

"Donald Trump should be impeached, convicted and removed from office immediately," Jeffries tweeted.

Across the Capitol, there has also been a very real discussion of Congress pressuring Pence and Trump’s Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment, which would install Pence as president for the final two weeks of Trump’s term.

At least one Republican lawmaker has endorsed that option, though many Democrats say it doesn’t go far enough as Pence would still need to agree.

“It’s time to invoke the 25th Amendment and to end this nightmare,” Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois said Thursday, becoming the first Republican to call for invoking it. “The president is unfit and the president is unwell.”

Privately, multiple Democratic members and aides insist that there is a larger group of Republicans beyond Kinzinger that support the move, and are in discussions about how to proceed.

The timeframe for any floor action is impossibly tight: There are just 13 days until President-elect Joe Biden takes the oath, and both chambers are slated to be on recess next week.

"A number of us are planning a full court press to demand we reconvene immediately,” one Democratic member said on the condition of anonymity to discuss private discussions. “A growing number of Republicans have privately indicated support for the removal of the president."

Schumer became the highest-ranking Democrat on Thursday to endorse using the 25th Amendment to remove Trump, along with Sen. Patty Murray of Washington state, the No. 3 Senate Democrat. So far, a single House Republican — Kinzinger, who has been sounding the alarm about Trump’s dangerous and false rhetoric for weeks — has voiced support.

While Senate Republicans are escalating their condemnation of the president, no one so far is calling for Trump to be removed from office. When asked about the 25th Amendment late Wednesday evening, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), who unlike Kinzinger voted to impeach Trump last year, said: "I think we’ve got to hold our breath for the next 20 days."

But some GOP officials have begun discussing deploying the drastic option, according to multiple reports, while some Trump administration officials have already resigned in protest.

The responsibility for invoking the 25th Amendment falls on the vice president and Cabinet, but some lawmakers believe action in the House and Senate would drum up pressure on the rest of the administration.

Dozens of House Democrats have now publicly called for Trump’s removal, either through the 25th Amendment or another set of impeachment proceedings.

Democrats are currently circulating two different sets of impeachment articles, led by Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Reps. David Cicilline (D-R.I.), respectively. It's unclear for now if either of those articles would be “privileged,” which would mean the House would be forced to move quickly to consider it on the floor.

Within the Judiciary Committee, there is a push by several members to return next week to take further action. Several potential options are being discussed, including someone introducing impeachment articles, a concerted push for the 25th Amendment or something else, according to multiple sources.

Several Judiciary members had discussed impeachment on their group text chat on Wednesday, in the same moments that members were evacuating from the House chamber as Trump supporters breached the Capitol building.

It’s uncertain if more Republican lawmakers will deliver additional public statements rebuking the president. A majority of the House GOP caucus still voted to back Trump’s doomed bid to overturn the election results Wednesday night after a day of mayhem in the Capitol.

Kinzinger, along with many Republicans, directly blamed Trump for inciting the violence that led to yesterday’s deadly riots at the Capitol and then refusing to denounce it forcefully. Meanwhile, all three major social media platforms — Twitter, Facebook and Instagram — have suspended Trump’s accounts over his rhetoric.

Kinzinger, a 42-year-old Air Force veteran, has long pushed back on Trump’s foreign policy moves. But while most of the Republican Party was still paralyzed by Trump’s brazen attempts to overturn the election in the immediate aftermath of Nov. 3, Kinzinger was one of the few Republicans willing to stand up to the president.

Marianne LeVine, Kyle Cheney and Olivia Beavers contributed to this report.

UPDATE:

Speaker Nancy Pelosi called for the resignation of Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund and said that House Sergeant-at-Arms Paul Irving will be resigning after the massive security breach of the Capitol on Wednesday by pro-Trump rioters.

spokeswoman for Sund said earlier he has no plans to step down.

ORIGINAL:

Top security officials in Congress are facing swift fallout over the embarrassing and deadly security breach of the Capitol by President Donald Trump’s supporters.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said he will fire Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Mike Stenger when Democrats take the majority later this month after the pro-Trump riots in the Capitol on Wednesday afternoon.

“If Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Stenger hasn't vacated the position by then, I will fire him as soon as Democrats have a majority in the Senate," Schumer said in a statement to POLITICO.

Stenger and House Sergeant-at-Arms Paul Irving are both under pressure to step down after the deadly and embarrassing breach of security.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said ultimate blame lies with "unhinged criminals" that desecrated the Capitol, but nonetheless suggested that the Congress would have to address the "shocking failures in the Capitol’s security posture and protocols.”

McConnell's office has not yet commented on Stenger.

The House and Senate sergeants-at-arms are on the most immediate chopping block, according to multiple sources in both parties. Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund will also face intense scrutiny. And President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration could see changes.

“The Capitol Police will and should really do a quick review here of what went wrong and what they need to do to be sure nothing like that could happen again,” Senate Rules Chair Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) told reporters early Thursday. “You want to take one more really hard look at what you thought your crowd security concerns might be for Jan. 20.”

Eva Malecki, a spokesperson for the Capitol police, said: "the Chief has no plans to step down.

The change with Stenger could happen sooner than the shift of power on Jan. 20, according to sources. Irving, the House sergeant-at-arms since 2012, is also under intense scrutiny and is expected to be pressured to step down following the rioting and violence that took place inside the Capitol Wednesday.

McConnell and Speaker Nancy Pelosi had no immediate comment. Sund put out a statement saying that the Capitol Police had a “robust plan” for demonstrators, “but make no mistake — these riots were not First Amendment activities."

The frustration was evident as senators gathered in a secure room in the Capitol complex on late Wednesday. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) briefly but pointedly dressed down sergeant-at-arms staff about the unprecedented security breach in the Capitol, according to two sources familiar with the conversation.

Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), the House Democrat who oversees funding for the Capitol police, told reporters there would be swift fallout from the deadly security breach.

Ryan praised the rank-and-file Capitol police for doing “everything they could” to hold back the mob but said higher ranking officials will be taken to task and likely fired. At least 15 police officers were hospitalized due to the chaos with one in critical condition, according to Ryan.

“For us not to have an expeditious plan – the breach happened at 1 hour and 15 minutes of the Capitol police being able to hold off the mob,” Ryan told reporters Thursday. “You can be assured that somebody’s going to be held responsible for this.”

And Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Ryan’s counterpart in the Senate, said “we need a full investigation on how the Capitol's security was breached this quickly.”

“Being outnumbered, ill-equipped, and unprepared is not the fault of officers, rather the responsibility of their superiors,” Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.), who was among those in the chamber as rioters breached the Capitol, said via text message Thursday morning. “Yesterday's security failure was preventable, inexcusable and requires a full investigation and the removal of those responsible from their positions.”

The House floor was buzzing with talk of immediate firings Wednesday night as lawmakers gathered to restart certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. Lawmakers did not coalesce around a specific plan but generally agreed that there needed to be swift leadership changes both within the Capitol Police, including Sund, and the Sergeant-at-Arms offices, according to multiple sources familiar with the conversations.

Ryan and House Appropriations Chair Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) on Thursday announced an investigation of the Capitol Police failures that led to Wednesday’s mob-rule.

Rioters stormed the Capitol, crashing through glass windows and busting down doors, invading some of the most secure areas of the Capitol, including the Senate chamber and Pelosi’s office. Ryan said he was disturbed by videos from Wednesday that appeared to show Capitol police opening the barriers to allow the rioters onto Capitol grounds and then later freely leave the Capitol after destroying it. One woman was shot and killed inside the complex during the chaos.

The sergeant-at-arms has more than 800 employees who oversee security of the Capitol, congressional office buildings and staff, while the Capitol Police has 2,300 employees and officers.

During other moments like Trump’s impeachment or the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, the security and law enforcement presence inside the building was pronounced, but at times on Thursday there were barren halls turned over to the rioters. And not until the trespassers were expelled from the Capitol did the number of officers reach overwhelming levels.

"It was unfathomable,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) told MetroNews in West Virginia on Thursday. “I think it was the lowest day."

Sarah Ferris contributed to this report.