Category: 25th amendment

GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy Caught On Audio Discussing Removing Trump From Office, Blaming Him For Capitol Riot

Posted on by Rusty Weiss

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is heard on newly-released audiotapes describing Trump’s actions surrounding the January 6th riot at the Capitol as “atrocious” and suggesting that invoking the 25th Amendment to remove him from office would take “too long.”

The news comes courtesy of a call recorded by New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns for a new book titled, “This Will Not Pass.”

“Look, what the president did is atrocious and totally wrong,” McCarthy said of Trump in what is described as a “House Republican expanded leadership call” recorded on January 8th.

The California Republican indicated he would reach out to Joe Biden and express opposition to the impeachment process noting that the President-elect at the time would be stymied in his Cabinet selections if some candidates were engaging in a trial.

He also noted impeachment would likely divide the nation.

“I do think the impeachment divides the nation further and continues to divide it even greater,” McCarthy says. “That’s why I want to reach out to Biden.”

In the same book, it was reported that McCarthy had planned to tell Trump to resign, though McCarthy denied it.

RELATED: Mitch McConnell Was ‘Exhilarated’ That Trump ‘Committed Political Suicide’ On January 6

McCarthy Discussed 25th Amendment

Kevin McCarthy is also heard on the audio recording discussing the 25th Amendment, but noting it would take “too long” to implement.

The 25th Amendment is a constitutional provision allowing for the removal of the President should he be deemed medically, or as some were suggesting at the time, mentally unfit.

During the phone conversation, a GOP staff member noted Democrats were undecided politically on how to deal with the fallout of the Capitol riot, adding that the amendment was a possibility.

“That takes too long too,” McCarthy lamented. “It could go back to the House, right?”

RELATED: Tucker Rips GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy As Democrat ‘Puppet’ After Audio Surfaces of McCarthy Ripping Trump Supporters

McCarthy’s Private Conversations on Capitol Riot Differ From His Public Comments

The book and subsequent audio recordings from the New York Times reporters haven’t reflected very well on McCarthy, who seemed to project one persona in private conversations while eventually publicly defending former President Trump over the Capitol riot.

Weeks ago McCarthy denied reports that he had a conversation with other GOP leaders about encouraging Trump to resign over the events surrounding January 6th, prompting Martin and Burns to release audio to the contrary.

In other recordings, the Minority Leader claimed that conservative lawmakers referring to other Republicans who weren’t going to fight the election results as “anti-Trump” was escalating matters, and their comments were “serious stuff” that “has to stop.”

“Can’t they take their Twitter accounts away, too?” he asked.

McCarthy’s comments prompted Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson to eviscerate the GOP leader, calling him a “puppet of the Democratic Party” and suggesting he “sounds like an MSNBC contributor.”

Carlson warned that the midterms could result in that Democrat “puppet” being House Speaker come January.

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Excerpts from the book titled “This Will Not Pass” also reveal Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell admitting he was “exhilarated” that  Trump had “totally discredited himself” with his actions surrounding the Capitol riot.

He also took joy that Trump seemingly had ‘committed political suicide.’

“I feel exhilarated by the fact that this fellow finally, totally discredited himself,” McConnell said. “He put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger. Couldn’t have happened at a better time.”

A column by Burns and Martin in April in the New York Times also indicates the level of glee McConnell was taking in the political fallout for Trump as he celebrated the idea of impeachment.

“The Democrats are going to take care of the son of a bitch for us,” McConnell reportedly said.

It will be interesting to hear the audio of those remarks when they eventually come out.

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CNN Personality Claims Trump Is ‘Leader Of A Terrorist Organization’

Posted on by LifeZette

A CNN national security analyst went so far on Tuesday as to claim that President Donald Trump is the “leader of a terrorist organization,” calling for the “complete isolation” of him despite the fact that 74 million Americans voted for in this past election.

CNN Analyst Says Trump Is ‘Leader Of This Domestic Terrorist Effort’

Juliette Kayyem, a lecturer at Harvard University and former member of Barack Obama’s Homeland Security Advisory Council, argued on CNN that Trump is the “spiritual” and “operational” leader of a “domestic terrorism effort.”

“Trump is the spiritual, but I will also say operational leader of this domestic terrorism effort. He tells them where to go. He tells them what to do. He tells them why they’re angry,” she outrageously alleged.

Not stopping there, Kayvem claimed that the U.S. government must launch a counterterrorism effort against against the Trump supporters who protested at the Capitol building last week.

“And so we need to start at the top, like any counterterrorism effort, which is total isolation of the president of the United States. Impeachment, yes. 25th Amendment, yes. Deplatforming, yes. All of the above. No money. No access to campaign funds,” she said, going on to argue for the president’s “complete isolation” because Trump, “as the leader of a terrorist organization,” will have a more difficult time recruiting followers if he is “viewed as a loser.”

Related: Hillary Clinton Calls Capitol Riots ‘Result Of White-Supremacist Grievances,’ Wants Trump Impeached

“He’s going to have his radical elements. We will arrest them, we will isolate them,” Kayvem added. “But what we have to make sure is that Donald Trump does not have a second act.”

I know I sound incredibly harsh right now calling the president this, but we are in the tactical response right now. Enough with the ‘let’s unity’ and stuff, this is a tactical effort right now to make sure that we protect American citizens and, of course, the next president of the United States.”

Kayvem Doubles Down 

Kayvem doubled down on this in an article published on Tuesday by The Atlantic. In this article, she accused Trump of “rallying point for a coalition of theocrats, internet fantasists, white supremacists, and various other authoritarians who are in no way committed to peaceful transitions of power.”

“The way to unite this country is to isolate acts of violence—and a leader who incites it—from legitimate expression,” Kayyem wrote. “Trump was a north star for a certain kind of radical. Americans will be safer the more that star loses its shine.”

Read Next: Nancy Pelosi Accuses Capitol Rioters Of Choosing ‘Their Whiteness’ Over Democracy

This piece was written by James Samson on January 12, 2021. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

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Ilhan Omar Says House ‘Will Impeach This Week’ If Pence Doesn’t Act On Trump

Posted on by LifeZette

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) took to Twitter on Monday to say that the House of Representatives “will impeach this week” if Vice President Mike Pence does not invoke the 25th Amendment against President Donald Trump.

Omar Discusses Impeaching Trump

“Where things stand: I just introduced my impeachment resolution,” she wrote. “The full House will now vote on a measure calling on VP Pence and the cabinet to remove Donald Trump under the 25th amendment. If Pence does not act, the House will move to impeach this week.”

This comes days after Omar said she was “drawing up Articles of Impeachment,” claiming that Trump “should be impeached by the House of Representatives & removed from office by the United States Senate.”

“We can’t allow him to remain in office, it’s a matter of preserving our Republic and we need to fulfill our oath,” she continued.

Related: AOC Calls For Trump To Be Impeached – ‘We Came Close To Half Of The House Nearly Dying’

Omar’s tweet on Monday included various bills and letters that she has pledged to support.

“Together, we will hold this president accountable and restore our democracy,” Omar concluded.

Omar Leading The Charge To Impeach Trump

Omar has been leading the charge to impeach Trump in the days since the riots at the Capitol.

“We must impeach and remove him from office immediately so he cannot threaten our democracy and the world any longer and hold public office ever again,” Omar said, according to Newsweek. “Congress should reconvene immediately to carry out this constitutional duty.”

She added that she has no confidence in Trump’s cabinet actually invoking the 25th Amendment.

“It would be really quite fascinating to have the ability to trust those individuals who have been part of his administration, who have been complacent in his activities to take the lead and invoke the 25th Amendment,” Omar said. “As we’ve just learned moments before I got on with you, Vice President Mike Pence has said he has no interest in invoking the 25th Amendment.”

Related: Maxine Waters Warns Trump May Want ‘Civil War’ – Wants Him ‘Stopped Dead In His Tracks, However We Do It’

“So we are left with figuring out what it means for us as members of Congress, how to fulfill our oath to protect our nation,” she added. She was then asked what had changed since the last time Trump was impeached that might lead to a Senate conviction.

“A lot has changed,” Omar continued. “We have just witnessed the president take part in an attempted coup and there is a clear understanding that he poses an imminent threat to not just our democracy but to our republic and to the world and having him remain in office any longer is not in the best interests of our nation.”

This piece was written by James Samson on January 11, 2021. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

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Pelosi Calls For Trump To Be Prosecuted – Dubs Him ‘Deranged, Unhinged, Dangerous’

Posted on by LifeZette

In a portion of a “60 Minutes” interview that was released on Friday, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) called for Donald Trump to be prosecuted as she dubbed him a “deranged, unhinged, dangerous” president of the United States.

Pelosi Attacks Trump

“Well, sadly, the person who’s running the executive branch is a deranged, unhinged, dangerous president of the United States, and only a number of days until we can be protected from him,” Pelosi said. “But he has done something so serious that there should be prosecution against him.”

She added that the 25th Amendment could still be invoked, and that “nothing is off the table.”

Related: Nancy Pelosi: After ‘Armed Insurrection’ House Could Impeach Trump Again

Pelosi Discusses Nuclear Codes 

This came after Pelosi revealed that she had talked to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley to discuss President Trump and the nuclear codes,

“This morning, I spoke to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley to discuss available precautions for preventing an unstable president from initiating military hostilities or accessing the launch codes and ordering a nuclear strike,” Pelosi wrote in a letter.

“The situation of this unhinged President could not be more dangerous, and we must do everything that we can to protect the American people from his unbalanced assault on our country and our democracy,” she added. 

Once the meeting was over, Pelosi told her caucuses that she had been given assurances there are safeguards in place in the event Trump wants to launch a nuclear weapon.

“Speaker Pelosi initiated a call with the Chairman. He answered her questions regarding the process of nuclear command authority,” Colonel Dave Butler said in a statement obtained by CNN.

Related: Pelosi Urges Military To Block ‘Unhinged’ President Trump From Nuclear Codes

Pelosi and her fellow Democrats are preparing a push to impeach Trump, should he not resign.

“It is the hope of members that the president will immediately resign,” Pelosi said in a statement, according to The New York Times. “But if he does not, I have instructed the Rules Committee to be prepared.”

This piece was written by James Samson on January 9, 2021. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

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Maxine Waters Warns Trump May Want ‘Civil War’ – Wants Him ‘Stopped Dead In His Tracks, However We Do It’

Posted on by LifeZette

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) spoke out on Friday to nonsensically warn that Donald Trump may try to start a “Civil War,” adding that he “has got to be stopped dead in his tracks,” whether it’s by impeachment or by invoking the 25th Amendment.

Waters Demands Investigation Into Capitol Police

Waters, who is chair of the House Financial Services Committee, has also called for an investigation to be launched into the U.S. Capitol Police’s failure to stop Wednesday’s riot at the Capitol building.

“There’s got to be prosecutions. There’s got to be accountability,” Waters said while appearing on “The Joe Madison Show” on SiriusXM.

“And of course, this president, who has lied his way all the way up, until this insurrection that he has caused, and the fact that we all, many of us believe he is trying to create a civil war, has got to be stopped dead in his tracks, however we can do it: whether it is Amendment 25 or whether it is a new way by bringing him up before the Congress,” Waters continued. 

The 25th Amendment allows for a president to be removed from office if the Vice President and the majority of the cabinet deem him incapable of carrying out the job, according to The Washington Times.

Related: Maxine Waters Outrageously Claims Trump Has Been ‘Compromised’ By Putin

Waters Doubles Down

Not stopping there, Waters also slammed U.S. Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund, who has already handed in his resignation. She said that she had already specifically asked Sound about security.

“[Sund] was telling us that he had it all under control. It turned out he had nothing under control. Nothing under control. And we were overrun,” said Waters.

“The Capitol of the United States of America, one of the most supposedly secure buildings in the country, was breached, and with them climbing the wall it looked like a Third World country overtake of the government,” she added. 

Related: MSNBC’s Joy Reid Claims Capitol Police Went Easy On ‘White’ Protesters, Ignores Woman Killed

She went on to add that she was afraid of snipers, so she asked him about the top of the buildings.

“[Y]ou know what I was thinking about? I was thinking about John Kennedy and Martin Luther King in opposite buildings and windows near the top of those buildings, and how they target people and they snipe and they could kill people,” she said. “And that’s what really was on my mind. I asked him about all of that.”

This piece was written by James Samson on January 8, 2021. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

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GOP Sen. Ben Sasse Will Consider Impeachment, Ilhan Omar Predicts President Trump WILL Be Removed

Posted on by Rusty Weiss

Republican Senator Ben Sasse indicated he will “definitely consider” a vote to impeach President Trump or support having him removed from office through the 25th Amendment.

Sasse (R-NE) made his comments during an appearance on “The Hugh Hewitt Show.”

He said President Trump has “a deep brokenness in his soul” and accused him of telling the crowd at a rally earlier in the day to “go wild.”

When Hewitt asked if he should be “impeached and removed,” Sasse replied that he had much to consider but that the President was “derelict in his duty.”

In an interview with CBS This Morning, the Republican lawmaker acknowledged he would “definitely consider” articles of impeachment.

“If they come together and have a process, I will definitely consider whatever articles they might move, because … I believe the president has disregarded his oath of office,” said Sasse.

RELATED: Federal Prosecutor Could Bring Criminal Charges Against President Trump For Capitol Violence

Ben Sasse Considers Impeaching Trump, Ilhan Omar Predicts It’s Going To Happen

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) was the first Democrat lawmaker to announce a push to impeach President Trump on Wednesday.

“We can’t allow him to remain in office, it’s a matter of preserving our Republic and we need to fulfill our oath,” she tweeted.

In a newly published tweet, Omar seems even more confident about the possibility that she will succeed.

“He will be impeached,” she predicted. “Justice will be served.”

“Thank you to the millions who responded to this attack on our democracy,” Omar continued. “Thank you to the hundreds of members who heard their calls.”

RELATED: Ilhan Omar, Squad Members Call For Trump’s Impeachment, Expulsion Of Republican Lawmakers

Democrats Are Looking To Fast-Track A Vote On Impeachment

CNN reports Democrat lawmakers will consider fast-tracking an impeachment vote if Vice President Mike Pence declines to utilize the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office.

“Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her leadership team are considering a lightning-quick impeachment process if Vice President Mike Pence and the Cabinet refuse to take unprecedented steps to remove President Donald Trump from office in less than two weeks’ time,” they write.

They said the swift move to try and remove Trump from office has been confirmed by multiple Democrat sources.

CNN also advises that President Trump’s impeachment would need “significant bipartisan support to succeed in the Senate.”

Sasse is signaling he might have the desire to impeach Trump. Certainly, Romney (R-UT) would.

Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO), the highest-ranking Senate Republican to weigh in on the impeachment discussion, quickly dismissed the idea.

“The Speaker knows this is not going to happen. Sen. Schumer knows this isn’t going to happen,” he said.

“You don’t have the time for it to happen, even if there was a reason. So there’s no reason to debate this except just pure politics.”

Sasse and Omar are pretending they’re adhering to principles when in reality, they are engaged purely in politics that will continue to divide the country. It’s a disgrace.

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Pelosi Urges Military To Block ‘Unhinged’ President Trump From Nuclear Codes

Posted on by Becky Noble

As attempts to portray Donald Trump as mentally unhealthy and unstable increase, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi on Friday called on Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley to prevent the President Trump from having access to the nuclear codes.

Pelosi called the president “unhinged” and “dangerous.”

Since the rally-turned-riot on Wednesday in Washington D.C., Democrats have blamed President Trump for inciting the violence.

Attempting To Remove Trump From Office

In a statement, Pelosi explained her extraordinary move.

“This morning, I spoke to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley to discuss available precautions for preventing an unstable president from initiating military hostilities or accessing the launch codes and ordering a nuclear strike,” Pelosi (D-Calif.) wrote.

“The situation of this unhinged President could not be more dangerous, and we must do everything that we can to protect the American people from his unbalanced assault on our country and our democracy,” she wrote.

Pelosi’s concern for President Trump “initiating military hostilities” come less than two weeks after Congress voted to block President Trump from withdrawing troops from the 20-year War in Afghanistan.

With just twelve days left in Donald Trump’s presidency, Democrats have called on Vice President Mike Pence and the rest of the Cabinet to remove Trump from office via the 25th Amendment.

Failing that, they have threatened a second impeachment.

RELATED: Nancy Pelosi: After ‘Armed Insurrection’ House Could Impeach Trump Again

Since Wednesday, the CEO’s of several of the most prominent social media sites, including Facebook and Twitter, have suspended President Trump’s accounts.

Facebook has suspended Trump’s account until Joe Biden is sworn in as president. Twitter is also considering a permanent ban.

RELATED: Michelle Obama Demands Big Tech Permanently Ban ‘Infantile and Unpatriotic’ President Trump

Those Who Are Piling On

While she has not overtly called for President Trump’s removal or resignation, former First Lady Michelle Obama also called for Trump to be banned from social media.

Obama called Trump supporters who were at the rally “a gang,” and said that, “the riots were a fulfillment of the wishes of an infantile and unpatriotic president who can’t handle the truth of his own failures.”

On Thursday, the Editorial Board of the Wall Street Journal also called for President Trump to resign.

In their statement, they claimed that Trump “incited a crowd to march on the Legislative Branch,” and say, “it crosses a constitutional line that Mr. Trump hasn’t previously crossed. It is impeachable.” 

Several Cabinet members have resigned in the wake of Wednesday’s events at the Capitol.

Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and more recently Education Secretary Betsy DeVos have resigned. 

Which One Is More Likely To Happen?

Democrats have said that if Mike Pence does not act, they will immediately begin the impeachment process.

In order to invoke the 25th Amendment Vice President Mike Pence would have to have a majority of the Cabinet in agreement with him. The President can dispute this with a letter to Congress.

Congress would vote, and it would take a two-thirds supermajority, 67 Senators and 290 House members, to remove him from power.

Congress can also appoint its own body to review the President’s fitness. 

RELATED: Federal Prosecutor Could Bring Criminal Charges Against President Trump For Capitol Violence

Any impeachment process would have to go through a still-Republican Senate.

According to a report in Politico, two articles of impeachment have already been drafted, but Senate Republicans are not willing to go through another impeachment.

South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham said, “a last-minute attempt to impeach Trump would backfire.”

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Nancy Pelosi: After ‘Armed Insurrection’ House Could Impeach Trump Again

Posted on by John Hanson

During a press conference on Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that if Vice President Mike Pence does not pursue removing the President from the White House, then the House could move forward with impeaching Donald Trump.

Pelosi was referring to Vice President Pence using the 25th Amendment to remove President Trump from power.

Pelosi said, “If the vice president and the cabinet do not act, the congress may be prepared to move forward with impeachment.”

RELATED: Meghan McCain Breaks Down As She Begs Republicans To Remove Trump From Office Using 25th Amendment

Pelosi: ‘This Is Urgent; This Is An Emergency Of The Highest Magnitude’

Speaking of her belief that President Trump encouraged the Capitol protests that resulted in the breaching of the Capitol building, Pelosi said, “Yesterday, the president of the United States incited an armed insurrection against America.” 

“This is urgent; this is an emergency of the highest magnitude,” Pelosi said.

The Democrat leader called Trump “a very dangerous person who should not continue in office.”

“We are in a very difficult place in our country as long as Donald Trump sits in the White House,” she added.

“While there are only 13 days left, any day can be a horror show for America,” Pelosi went on.

Pelosi: Invoking 25th Amendment ‘Best Route’ But House Will Step Up If Needed

Pelosi said Pence to moving forward with using the 25th Amendment would be the “best route” but also that Congress could establish a commission to pursue that effort.  

Pelosi’s statement on Thursday comes in the wake of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer calling for Pence to remove Trump from office.

RELATED: Trump Vows There Will Be An ‘Orderly Transition’ Of Power On January 20th, Promises To Keep Fighting Election Outcome

Schumer Calls On Pence To Remove President Trump

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

“The quickest and most effective way – it can be today – to remove this president from office would be for the Vice President to immediately invoke the 25th Amendment,” Schumer added.

“If the Vice President and the Cabinet refuse to stand up, Congress should reconvene to impeach the president,” Schumer insisted.

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