Category: 25thAmendment

Jan. 6 committee conducting interviews with Trump Cabinet officials

Posted on (Updated by Brandi Buchman

In the wake of the insurrection, there was a reported flurry of conversation among members of former President Donald Trump’s Cabinet about whether he should be removed from office by way of the 25th Amendment. Now the Jan. 6 committee is conducting interviews with some of those officials as investigators pursue more information about what unfolded around Trump after the attack.

According to reporting first from ABC, the committee has now interviewed former Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and plans to interview former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo before the week is out.

Mick Mulvaney, who parlayed his job as Trump’s acting chief of staff to become the special envoy for Ireland, is also reportedly meeting with the panel on Thursday. 

Exactly six days after the attack on the U.S. Capitol, the House of Representatives passed a resolution 223-205 urging then-Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office.

At the time, Pence said he did not believe this course of action was “in the best interest of our nation or consistent with the Constitution,” and he dubbed the resolution a “political game.” He also issued his refusal to invoke the 25th Amendment before the House had even completed its vote. 

That “game” Pence worried about, however, was reportedly one that some members of Trump’s inner circle had already considered playing. 

In ABC reporter Jonathan Karl’s book, Betrayal, he described a conversation between then-Treasury Secretary Mnuchin and then-Secretary of State Pompeo. Pompeo, Karl reported, sought out “legal analysis” on how the 25th Amendment could be applied and how fast it might work. 

Washington, D.C., was heavily reeling from the Capitol assault. Yet during an appearance on MSNBC last November, Karl said the 25th Amendment talks were quickly nipped in the bud once officials learned the process could be a lengthy one and potentially complicated by the fact that members of Trump’s Cabinet had resigned after Jan. 6, including Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. 

It was reported Thursday that both DeVos and Chao are figures of interest to Jan. 6 investigators, too, and that they may also be asked to cooperate. 

DeVos stepped down 24 hours after the attack and told USA Today this June that she was part of conversations where the possibility of invoking the 25th Amendment with other members of Trump’s Cabinet was discussed. 

In a portion of his testimony to the Jan. 6 committee, former White House attorney Pat Cipollone told investigators that former Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia wanted members of the Cabinet to meet 24 hours after the insurrection. Scalia said he asked for the meeting because he felt “trying to work within the administration to steady the ship” would be better than watching more resignations roll in. 

Pompeo has historically denied that he was part of any conversation after Jan. 6 where invoking the 25th Amendment came up.  

DeVos’ recent interview undercuts that claim. 

“I spoke with the vice president and just let him know I was there to do whatever he wanted and needed me to do or help with, and he made it very clear that he was not going to go in that direction or that path,” DeVos said of Pence on June 9. “I spoke with colleagues. I wanted to get a better understanding of the law itself and see if it was applicable in this case. There were more than a few people who had those conversations internally.”

DeVos said when she realized invoking the 25th Amendment against Trump was not a viable path forward, she tendered her resignation. She has not outwardly blamed Trump for Jan. 6, but she told USA Today she “didn’t see the president step in and do what he could have done to turn it back or slow it down or really address the situation.” 

Cassidy Hutchinson, the former aide to Trump’s Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, testified to the Jan. 6 committee that discussions of removing Trump with the 25th Amendment were flowing after the mob laid siege to the Capitol. Trump had spent three hours watching the mob attack without strongly condemning the violence or taking concerted action to stop it. When he finally delivered a speech in the Rose Garden that afternoon, and only after multiple people had died and much blood had been shed, he proclaimed “we love you” to his supporters before asking them to go home. 

The next day, officials at the White House pushed to have Trump deliver a speech. Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson told the committee under oath that the plan for the Jan. 7 speech mostly went into effect because people inside the White House were terrified of two things: the mounting criticism that Trump didn’t do enough and that the 25th Amendment would be invoked.

“The secondary reason to that [speech] was that, ‘think about what might happen in the final 15 days of your presidency if we don’t do this, there’s already talks about invoking the 25th Amendment, you need this as cover,’” Hutchinson said. 

According to CNN, the committee is also seeking testimony from John Ratcliffe, a former Republican congressman from Texas who vehemently defended Trump during Trump’s first impeachment inquiry for obstruction of Congress and abuse of power as well as during special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference of the 2016 election.

Ratcliffe, despite a woeful lack of experience, ended up confirmed by the GOP-majority Senate to serve as Director of National Intelligence. His appointment was a rollercoaster. Trump first nominated him to serve in the role in August 2019, but Ratcliffe didn’t have support in the Senate. He also didn’t have widespread support in the intelligence community. A review of his record by investigative reporters at ABC revealed that Ratcliffe had exaggerated claims of his involvement in anti-terrorism efforts as well as illegal immigration crackdowns.

Chad Wolf, once the acting secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, and his former deputy, Ken Cuccinelli, are in reported talks to meet with investigators, as well. 

Both Wolf and Cuccinneli were asked to cooperate with the probe voluntarily last October.

Wolf was once much adored by Trump. He began to lead the Department of Homeland Security after then-Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen resigned in April 2019. Despite Nielsen’s overt willingness to enforce any number of Trump’s cruel immigration policies during her tenure, she wasn’t enough of a toady for the 45th president, and he slammed her in the press as an ineffectual before she resigned. When she finally stepped down, Kevin McAleenan, then the commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, filled her slot. McAleenan resigned in November 2019. 

Those transitions were riddled with problems, however.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) would later reveal, after its own independent assessment of DHS, that both Nielsen and McAleenan altered or amended internal policies on lines of succession at the department. DHS pushed back on the report when it went public but Wolf ultimately stayed in place with Trump’s full support. Rep. Bennie Thompson, who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee as well as the Jan. 6 committee, said the succession rules were altered in haste so Trump’s “ideologues” could bypass typical Senate confirmation procedure. 

Thompson had good reason to feel this way. In a February 2019 interview with CBS’ Face the Nation, Trump acknowledged that he enjoyed lording over acting officials versus those who had to go through more rigorous congressional approval.

"I like acting because I can move so quickly. It gives me more flexibility," @realDonaldTrump told @margbrennan, asked about the several acting secretaries in his cabinet https://t.co/sdD5GWRNvo pic.twitter.com/87DX97JMe2

— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) February 3, 2019

Mulvaney, who meets with the committee Thursday, should cooperate without much trouble, if history is any indicator. Though he was a fierce defender of Trump’s during his tenure with the administration, after Jan. 6, Mulvaney became a more vocal critic. 

“You don't get to where you got to yesterday with something that's normal. That's not normal for any citizen, let alone a president of the United States,” Mulvaney said on Jan. 7 when facing questions about whether Trump should be removed through the 25th Amendment.

Since then, Mulvaney has thrown his support behind those Trump officials who have come forward to testify, including Hutchinson. 

The Jan. 6 committee is expected to continue its probe in the weeks ahead, and chairman Thompson has said that additional hearings will be held in September.  

House votes, futilely, to tell Pence to remove Trump with 25th Amendment

Posted on (Updated by Joan McCarter

While the House of Representatives was in the process of voting to direct Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment and relieve the nation of the burden of Donald Trump, Pence was rejecting the effort in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. "I do not believe that such a course of action is in the best interest of our Nation or consistent with our Constitution," he wrote, and went on to literally equate illegally overturning the election with invoking the 25th Amendment. "Last week," he wrote, "I did not yield to pressure to exert power beyond my constitutional authority to determine the outcome of the election, and I will not now yield to the effort in the House of Representatives to play political games at a time so serious in the life of our Nation."

He went on to actually reiterate Trump's latest threats: "I urge you can every member of Congress to avoid actions that would further divide and inflame the passions of the moment." He said that. "Work with us to lower the temperature and unite our country," he writes. After Trump sicced his mob ON PENCE. After Trump tried to get HIM killed. Pence's slavish devotion to the guy who put a hit out on him did not deter the House from passing the resolution, 223-205.

In addition to that, the House passed, in the rule for the resolution, a requirement that every member of the House wear a mask on the House floor. They will be fined $500 the first time they expose their colleagues on the House floor by not wearing a mask, and $2,500 the second time, with the money being withheld from their pay. They will not be able to pay the fines from either expense accounts or campaign funds. So far, three Democrats have tested positive for COVID-19 after sheltering with maskless Republicans during the January 6 siege.

The House unveiled another initiative Tuesday night, attempting to enforce the rule that weapons not be allowed on the House floor by installing metal detectors at the entrances to the chamber. "Effective immediately, all persons, including members, are required to undergo security screening when entering the House chamber," the members were advised in a memo from the House Sergeant-at-Arms office. House reporters (see thread) watched many Republicans blow past the metal detectors, plowing over and around the Capitol Hill police, the police who put their lives on the line last Wednesday to save their sorry asses. This is the group that keeps demanding "unity" and that Trump not be impeached.

Speaking of impeachment, the process for that starts Wednesday at 9:00 AM ET, and should move quickly, relative to how House votes usually go. Once Pence's letter was in hand, Pelosi announced the impeachment managers:

Congressman Jamie Raskin, Lead Manager: Congressman Jamie Raskin is a member of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, where he serves as Chair of Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties and on the Judiciary Committee, where he serves as Vice Chair of the Subcommittee on the Constitution.  He also serves on the Rules Committee and the Committee on House Administration, where he is Vice Chair.  Prior to his time in Congress, Raskin was a three-term State Senator in Maryland and a professor of constitutional law at American University’s Washington College of Law for more than 25 years.

Congresswoman Diana DeGette: Congresswoman DeGette serves on the Energy and Commerce Committee as Chair of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.  She is serving her thirteenth term in office.  Before serving in the U.S. House of Representatives, DeGette was an attorney focusing on civil rights before being elected to serve two terms in the Colorado House, including one term as Assistant Minority Leader.

Congressman David Cicilline: Congressman Cicilline is a member of the Judiciary Committee, where he serves as Chair of the Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law.  He also serves on the Foreign Affairs Committee.  He is serving his sixth term in Congress.  Early in his career, Cicilline served as a public defender in the District of Columbia.  Cicilline served two terms as Mayor of Providence and four terms in the Rhode Island House of Representatives.

Congressman Joaquin Castro: Congressman Castro serves on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and on the Foreign Affairs Committee, where he is also Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.  He is serving his fifth term in Congress.  Prior to his election to Congress, he served five terms in the Texas Legislature and served as a litigator in private practice.

Congressman Eric Swalwell: Congressman Swalwell serves on House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, where he chairs the Intelligence Modernization and Readiness Subcommittee, and on the Judiciary Committee.  He is a former prosecutor and is the son and brother of law enforcement officers.  He is serving his fifth term in Congress.

Congressman Ted Lieu: Congressman Lieu serves on the Judiciary Committee and the Committee on Foreign Affairs.  He is a former active-duty officer in the U.S. Air Force who served as a prosecutor in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps, and currently serves as a Colonel in the Reserves.  He is serving his fourth term in Congress.

Congresswoman Stacey Plaskett: Congresswoman Plaskett serves on the House Ways and Means Committee.  Before she was elected to Congress, she served as an Assistant District Attorney in the Bronx District Attorney’s Office and as Senior Counsel at the Department of Justice.  She is serving her fourth term in Congress.

Congressman Joe Neguse: Congressman Neguse is a member of the Judiciary Committee, where he serves as Vice Chair of the Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law.  Congressman Neguse also serves on the Natural Resources Committee and the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis.  Early in his career, Neguse was a litigator in private practice.  He is serving his second term in Congress.

Congresswoman Madeleine Dean: Congresswoman Dean is a member of the Judiciary Committee, where she serves on the Subcommittee on Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.  She is serving her second term in Congress, before which she served in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives for four terms and was a lawyer in private practice.

House convenes to begin process of impeaching Trump for the second time

Posted on by Joan McCarter

The House of Representatives will vote Tuesday evening to tell Vice President Pence to "convene and mobilize the principal officers of the executive departments of the Cabinet to activate section 4 of the 25th Amendment to declare President Donald J. Trump incapable of executing the duties of his office and to immediately exercise powers as acting President." Knowing that Pence will not do so, they will vote on Wednesday at 9 AM ET to charge Trump with "inciting violence against the government of the United States" and will impeach him.

They could be joined by some Republicans. Republican leadership is not whipping votes against it. Members will be advised to "vote their conscience." Which is a strange thing to assume 139 of them who voted to throw out the results of a free and fair election, including leaders Kevin McCarthy and Steve Scalise, even have. There will be a single impeachment article for "incitement of insurrection."

"In all this, President Trump gravely endangered the security of the United States and its institutions of Government," the resolution says. "He threatened the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful transition of power, and imperiled a coequal branch of Government. He thereby betrayed his trust as President, to the manifest injury of the people of the United States." Trump, as always, remains belligerent and defiant and again threatened his opponents with further violence. "For Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer to continue on this path, I think it's causing tremendous danger to our county and it's causing tremendous anger. I want no violence," he told reporters Tuesday.  

That of course will not stop the process. But what happens on the Senate side remains uncertain because it's absolutely unprecedented. Incoming Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, importantly, has advised Democratic senators that impeachment hearings are going to happen and to not even discuss censure as a possible alternative. They are exploring ways of moving forward. One includes an obscure emergency authority that would allow him and current Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to end the recess, which is now set to end on January 19, and reconvene immediately after the House transmits the articles of impeachment. That requires McConnell's cooperation and thus far no one in his office is answering calls from reporters, so no one knows whether this is really an option.

Another option Democrats are exploring is moving forward on parallel tracks, by referring the impeachment to the Senate Judiciary Committee for hearings and bypassing the floor for long enough to get critical nominations through. Another option is appointing a commission to investigate and produce a report the full Senate would then act on. Another possibility Biden has raised, that is potentially possible, according to experts the Washington Post's Greg Sargent talked to is "[a] half-day on dealing with impeachment, and [a] half-day getting my people nominated and confirmed," in Biden's words.

Scholar Norman Ornstein told Sargent that the the Constitution allows the Senate to set its own rules and procedures on impeachment, "So in theory it is possible to move forward with other actions even as they’re doing a trial." Adam Jentelson, a former senior adviser to Harry Reid and all around Senate procedural wonk, agrees. "The Senate can conduct this trial however it wants, so the bifurcation path is entirely doable,. […] Procedurally, it's basically a matter of conducting a two-track approach." It could, however, require unanimous consent giving the insurrectionists in the Senate a chance to make mischief.

Trump won't leave voluntarily. Pence won't force the issue. McConnell "ignored Trump's calls before Wednesday’s siege and now has no plans to call him back, according to one official," so he too is refusing to fulfill his oath and obligation to protect the country. The next week is going to be as fraught as the last, because the entire Republican Party sold its soul to Donald Trump five years ago, and sold out the country in the process.

House has the votes to impeach Trump—again

Posted on by Joan McCarter

The House of Representatives is moving toward the second impeachment of Donald Trump and consensus has emerged among leadership that they need to do it fast. They now have the 218 votes needed to get it done, though the week's proceedings could be complicated by the COVID-19 infections that resulting from the Jan. 6 attack, when many Republicans refused to wear masks to protect the colleagues they were sheltering with. If anything slows this effort down at this point, it will be the pandemic.

On Monday, leaders got the ball rolling when Majority Leader Steny Hoyer attempted to get unanimous consent for the House to pass a resolution demanding Vice President Mike Pence invoke the 25th Amendment to strip power from Trump. A West Virginia Republican objected, though it's worth noting he did so based on process rather than substantive grounds. There might be a dawning realization among at least some of them that they can't publicly defend what happened. At this point, the plan is for them to formally introduce and pass that same resolution Tuesday, giving Pence 24 hours to respond before moving to an impeachment vote Wednesday. But there might be momentum to move that timeline up.

Rep. David Cicilline, a Rhode Island Democrat who has taken the lead in getting signatures on the impeachment resolution, told The Washington Post's Greg Sargent, "The whole reason for moving forward is the fact that every single minute this person stays in the White House presents a clear and present danger to our democracy. […] Most House Democrats believe he should be removed as quickly as possible." He argued against Rep. James Clyburn's suggestion that the House wait until President-elect Joe Biden's first 100 days are done before sending the resolution over to the Senate.

"This is an attack unlike we’ve ever seen on the very foundations of our democracy," Cicilline told Sargent. "The American people saw this playing out in real time, and the visuals were so powerful that I think there's growing pressure on the Republicans to do something." He's backed by Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and by Rep. Adam Schiff, who told CBS News, "If we impeach him this week […] it should immediately be transmitted to the Senate and we should try the case as soon as possible. […] Mitch McConnell has demonstrated when it comes to jamming Supreme Court justices through the Congress, he can move with great alacrity when he wants to."

That's arguing that there's a possibility of pressuring Senate Majority Leader McConnell, which is not impossible but unlikely. The only public comment McConnell has given following Wednesday's attack on the Capitol—on his own institution—and Trump's incitement of insurrection is a memo sent Friday to Senate Republicans saying the earliest the Senate could act is Jan. 19, one day before the inauguration. That's not actually true, as Schiff says. If McConnell wanted to bring the Senate back, he could.

With the FBI warning of further domestic terrorism and violence over the next week and during planned Jan. 17 rallies in D.C. and state capitals, there might be an awakening among Senate Republicans that they've got to do something. It's not a safe bet, but three Senate Republicans—Pat Toomey, Lisa Murkowski, and Ben Sasse—have said Trump has to go. Toomey and Sasse say they would consider articles of impeachment, but they're not sure there's enough time, and Murkowski wants him to resign.

There's another call Monday among House Democrats that could speed up Pelosi's timeline. The momentum to act grows by the minute, at least among House members.

Monday, Jan 11, 2021 · 7:35:03 PM +00:00 · Joan McCarter

It’s official. The 25th Amendment vote will be Tuesday, impeachment Wednesday. 

House starts the impeachment ball rolling Monday, with vote expected by Wednesday

Posted on by Joan McCarter

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi laid out the week's efforts to dislodge Donald Trump from the Oval Office in a Sunday letter. The House will be in a pro forma session Monday, during which Majority Leader Steny Hoyer will introduce a resolution directing Vice President Mike Pence to "convene and mobilize the Cabinet to activate the 25th Amendment to declare the President incapable of executing the duties of his office." Since Pence hasn't even bothered to return her phone call from Thursday, they do this with no expectation that he will act.

They are also doing it with the expectation that a Republican will reject Hoyer's request for unanimous consent to bring up the resolution. The plan as of now is for the resolution to be brought to the floor Tuesday for a vote, giving Pence 24 hours for a response. Which they won't get but which would trigger the impeachment vote. "In protecting our Constitution and our Democracy, we will act with urgency, because this President represents an imminent threat to both," Pelosi wrote. "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," she continued.

The impeachment vote is expected by Wednesday, and as of Sunday night there were 210 Democrats, out of 222 in the caucus, who signed on to one of the impeachment resolutions. The impeachment resolution asserts that Trump would "remain a threat to national security, democracy, and the Constitution" if he is not removed. It will charge him with inciting an insurrection. "In all this, President Trump gravely endangered the security of the United States and its institutions of Government," the resolution says. "He threatened the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful transition of power, and imperiled a coequal branch of Government. He thereby betrayed his trust as President, to the manifest injury of the people of the United States."

House members have been instructed to return to D.C. by Tuesday, and leaders are working with the Federal Air Marshal Service and Capitol police on a plan to keep members safe as they return to D.C. and move back into the Capitol and their offices after Wednesday's attack.

In her letter, Pelosi also announced a Caucus call for Monday, during which she expects to discuss "the 25th Amendment, 14th Amendment Section 3 and impeachment." It's that middle bit—the 14th Amendment Section 3—that is significant:

"No Person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability."

That's how the Congress expels insurrectionists, which is now the majority of House Republicans and eight Senate Republicans who voted to overturn election results even after Trump' mob invaded and vandalized the People's House, intent on hunting down and assassinating congressional leadership. Freshman Democratic Rep. Cori Bush will introduce a resolution to expel those members Monday.

The first order, however is getting rid of Trump, Rep. Jim Clyburn said on Fox News Sunday. "If we are the people's house, let's do the people's work and let's vote to impeach this president. … The Senate will decide later what to do with that—an impeachment." What happens after that vote isn't entirely clear. Clyburn argued on CNN, also on Sunday, that the Senate should wait until after President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration. "Let's give President-elect Biden the 100 days he needs to get his agenda off and running," he said.

Senate Majority Leader (for the next 10 days or so) Mitch McConnell hasn't spoken about plans, but his former chief of staff Josh Holmes, who also runs his PACs, tweeted Sunday "The more time, images, and stories removed from Wednesday the worse it gets. If you're not in a white hot rage over what happened by now you're not paying attention." Whether or not that translates into McConnell acting, who knows.

The third branch of government, the courts, have also weighed in—or more aptly declined to do so. The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied a motion from Trump to fast-track consideration of the multiple lawsuits he has seeking to overturn the election. The court is not going to hear his cases before the inauguration, if ever, making this the 63rd time Trump has lost in court.

Harrowing attack steels Democrats ahead of uniquely consequential era of U.S. governance

Posted on by Kerry Eleveld

If anyone ever doubted that American democracy was at least temporarily saved by voters defeating Donald Trump at the ballot box, they can lay that lingering doubt to rest. 

Just as people on the left have been warning for more than four years, Trump provided incontrovertible proof this week that he is an unmoored menace to society, an existential threat to the country, and a danger to the entire globe.

In fact, when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi released a letter Friday morning reassuring her Democratic colleagues that she had spoken with military leadership about safeguarding the country's nuclear stockpile from Trump, it was likely as much about reassuring the world that someone reasonable was in charge as it was about comforting the American people.  

“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 relayed. "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."

Jan. 6, 2021 will live in infamy—as will the four years in which Republican lawmakers coddled a would-be dictator who grew so confident in his iron grip on power that he ultimately declared war on the very government under his command. The absolutely harrowing episode has so far resulted in five deaths, including one Capitol Police officer who died of injuries he sustained during the violent insurrection incited by Trump and his henchmen. But it could have been far far worse. The military gear donned by the terrorists, the zip ties or "flex cuffs" some carried, and the gallows the mob erected outside the Capitol left no doubt they were there for blood. Nearly the entire line of succession was in the buildings they stormed—Vice President Mike Pence, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Senate President Pro Tempore Chuck Grassley, all of whom were whisked away to a secure location.

But as Rep. Sean Maloney of New York later explained on MSNBC, the rioters were one door away from capturing any number of congressional members in the Speaker’s Lobby as lawmakers made their way to the only remaining escape route in the building. The Washington Post obtained video of the scene, capturing the tense moment that resulted in the fatal shooting of one rioter without getting overly graphic. Other lawmakers, congressional staff, and journalists also narrowly escaped injury or being taken hostage as they huddled in offices and congressional chambers, sometimes donning gas masks and hugging the floor for cover. In essence, the nation was one door, one gunshot, one execution away from a moment where no one could have earthly known what would come next. And as dangerous as the territory is that we are now in, that precarious moment of unknowing easily could have precipitated a far more perilous period for our country and the world. 

And yet, within the same 24-hour period surrounding this riotous assault on U.S. governance, Democrats clinched the 50th Senate seat that secured their impending control of both chambers of Congress, while congressional lawmakers still managed to certify 306 electoral votes ensuring President-elect Joe Biden will indeed become commander in chief at noon on Jan. 20. 

At the same time, the Republican Party has been indefinitely thrown into an epic tailspin. Its future leadership is an open question. Its electoral viability is a complete mystery after the party managed to lose the House, Senate, and White House in a period of four years. Will Trump voters still show up at the polls in future elections? Will conservative-leaning suburbanites stick with a party that aided and abetted a president who sicced a violent mob on the U.S. Capitol? Maybe that's why the GOP is currently splitting up between staunch pro-seditionists and those who are abruptly and belatedly advocating for a break with Trump after four years of helping him destroy the country's Democratic norms at every possible turn. 

If there's a silver lining in all this upheaval, it's that Democrats are finally at the point where (forgive me) they seem to have no f'cks left to give. Instead of a lengthy internal debate over whether it makes sense to impeach a president who literally tried to get them killed while overthrowing the government, they are ploughing ahead, electoral consequences be damned. That's a far cry from where they started the week, with some top congressional Democrats expressing their hope to simply move beyond any lingering investigations of Trump and his administration. But Trump's deadly meltdown paired with the GOP's feckless refusal to confront his unfitness for office seems to have finally pushed Democratic lawmakers over the brink. 

Democrats coalesced around removing Trump from office by any means possible within 24 hours of the siege. They immediately pressured Pence and Trump's Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment. After Pence failed to even return the phone calls placed by Democratic leaders Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, Pelosi told House Democrats impeachment articles would be introduced on Monday. 

In a teaser clip of Pelosi's 60 Minutes interview set to air on Sunday, Pelosi went further than removal, calling for prosecution of Trump.

“Sadly, the person running the Executive Branch is a deranged, unhinged, dangerous president of the United States and it will be a number of days until we can be protected from him," Pelosi told Lesley Stahl, adding that "nothing" was off the table. "He has done something so serious that there should be a prosecution against him."

Outside of Trump and his cultists, absolutely no one wanted the horrific events that unfolded this week to take place. It was one of the darkest and most shameful moments in U.S. history. But the unimaginable episode also appears to have inspired a resolve among congressional Democrats that could prove a game changer heading into an era that may arguably be among the most consequential years of U.S. governance since the years surrounding the Civil Rights movement, the Great Depression, and even the Civil War.  

Watch the teaser for Pelosi’s 60 Minutes interview: 

NEWS: Nancy Pelosi calls for President Trump to be prosecuted. This is a preview of a @60Minutes interview airing this Sunday on CBS. ‘Sunday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi calls President Trump “deranged, unhinged, dangerous” and says he should be prosecuted. Lesley Stahl reports’ pic.twitter.com/tXbiG7VwJU

— David Begnaud (@DavidBegnaud) January 9, 2021

Trump remains defiant, Pence refuses to act. Impeachment is inevitable and must start now

Posted on by Joan McCarter

The calls for Donald Trump's immediate removal from office are growing louder and more insistent with every hour that passes. As of Friday morning, 159 House Democrats and 22 Senate Democrats have issued statements supporting impeachment. A Republican, Sen. Ben Sasse, is also on board, saying that he will "definitely consider whatever articles [the House] might move because I believe the president has disregarded his oath of office. … What he did was wicked."

Assistance House Speaker Katherine Clark told CNN that the House will move forward with an impeachment vote by the middle of next week if Vice President Pence and the Cabinet have not acted to remove Trump using the 25th Amendment. They need to move faster. They need to move now, because the 25th Amendment route is not happening and Trump remains dangerous.

Pence spent the whole of Thursday avoiding phone calls from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer. The resignations of two Cabinet secretaries—Elaine Chao and Betsy DeVos—complicate that process as well. CNBC reports that Steven Mnuchin and Mike Pompeo have had discussions with staff in their own agencies, identifying obstacles—the time it would take with just two weeks to inauguration, whether the "acting" secretaries—three of them—would be able to vote, and "concerns that forcing Trump from office could further stoke tensions among his base and make him a hero of the far right, doing more bad in the long term than good in the short term." Meaning they don't want to become targets of Trump's violent mob. "The general plan now is to let the clock run out," a former senior administration official told CNBC. "There will be a reckoning for this president, but it doesn't need to happen in the next 13 days."

A Trump tweet—he's out of Twitter jail for the moment—belies that sentiment. He remains defiant, threatening that the "great American Patriots" who voted for him and presumably those who attempted to overthrow the government at his instigation "will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!" He remains a danger and he and his mob pose a very real threat to the inauguration on Jan. 20, not to mention the entire Congress, Joe Biden, and Kamala Harris for the foreseeable future.

House Democrats are meeting Friday at noon and leadership seems ready to move forward. "I can confirm that we have had discussions about it and I would hope that the speaker would move forward if the vice president refuses to do what he is required to do under the Constitution," Rep. James Clyburn told CNN. "Everyone knows that this president is deranged." The previous impeachment manager, Rep. Adam Schiff, is ready to go. "Donald Trump lit the fuse which exploded at the Capitol," he tweeted. "Every day that he remains in office, he is a danger to the Republic. He should leave office immediately, through resignation, the 25th Amendment or impeachment."

At this point it seems to be a matter of when, not if, on impeachment. That puts pressure on the Senate Majority Leader (for the next few weeks) Mitch McConnell to act. The Senate is recessed until Jan. 19, but can and should reconvene for an impeachment hearing. If McConnell has any hopes at all of reconstituting a majority in 2022, he'll feel that pressure.

Pelosi: Trump must be removed, either by Pence and the cabinet or impeachment

Posted on by Joan McCarter

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters Thursday: "If the vice president and the cabinet do not act, the Congress may be prepared to move forward with impeachment. That is the overwhelming sentiment of my caucus and the American people."

“I join the Senate Democratic leader in calling on the vice president to remove this president by immediately invoking the 25th amendment. If the vice president and cabinet do not act the Congress may be prepared to move forward with impeachment," she reiterated. "He must be removed from office," she said. "While it is only 13 days left, any day can be a horror show for America." She acknowledged the growing calls among her own membership as well as her constituents for impeachment, but is intent right now on pressuring Vice President Pence and the cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment and remove him.

Trump has committed an assault on our nation and our people. Pence must remove him and invoke the 25th amendment. If they fail to act, we may be prepared to move forward with impeachment. Justice will be done to those who carried out these acts of sedition and cowardice. -NP pic.twitter.com/NG6bJLts2l

— Nancy Pelosi (@TeamPelosi) January 7, 2021

Schumer says Trump must be removed, either by 25th Amendment or impeachment

Posted on by Joan McCarter

Incoming Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has issued a strong statement calling for the immediate removal of Donald Trump. “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," he said.

"The quickest and most effective way—it can be done today—to remove this president from office would be for the Vice President to immediately invoke the 25th amendment. If the Vice President and the Cabinet refuse to stand up, Congress should reconvene to impeach the president." Yes. Absolutely yes. In addition, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is holding a 1 PM ET press conference.

With Schumer set to be majority leader in a few weeks, the threat of an impeachment has real teeth now that he's in a position to make it happen. Because Trump can still be impeached and convicted after he's left office on Jan. 20. Not only can he be impeached, he should be. He wants to run again in 2024, he wants to continue to lead an insurrectionist mob into a second civil war. He must be barred by conviction from having any future in public life.

As Democrats gather support for second impeachment, more voices call for invoking 25th Amendment

Posted on (Updated by Mark Sumner

Impeachment and removal from office is what Donald Trump deserves. Of course, it was what Trump deserved a year ago when Republicans gave him a free ride through the Senate. Several of those—including Mitch McConnell—making loud noises today, were key to making sure that Trump sailed through without even having to face a single witness in a trial where they knew he was guilty. 

Rep. Cori Bush has already drawn up new articles of impeachment based on Trump’s support for the insurrection taking place on Wednesday. Over a dozen other Democratic members of Congress have already signed on. However, it’s unclear how quickly action could be taken to both impeach Trump a second time and remove him from power. And that’s assuming Republicans do something they haven’t done in decades: place nation ahead of party. But others are calling for a Trump to be removed through other means. It begins with Mike Pence transmitting to both Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and, for the moment at least, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. That letter would express that Trump is no longer able to carry out the duties of his office under the 25th Amendment.

And there are some people who believe that action is already underway.

Thursday, Jan 7, 2021 · 12:58:40 AM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

The President incited an insurrection in the U.S. Capitol today. The 25th amendment should be invoked, and he should be removed from office. What we witnessed in Washington today was an assault on the citadel of democracy.

— Rep. Richard Neal (@RepRichardNeal) January 7, 2021

Thursday, Jan 7, 2021 · 1:16:41 AM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

It is too dangerous to have him as president over the next two weeks before an inauguration. He cannot be trusted with the sacred honor the American People gave him. I hope the 25th Amendment is put into action or an immediate bipartisan impeachment.

— Congressman Tim Ryan (@RepTimRyan) January 7, 2021

Thursday, Jan 7, 2021 · 1:30:03 AM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

More information showing why it’s vital that the 25th Amendment be invoked. Trump was perfectly willing to allow the Capitol to remain under siege rather than taking action to help. 

NEW: Trump initially rebuffed and resisted requests to mobilize the National Guard, according to a person with knowledge of the vents. It required intervention from White House officials to get it done, according to the person with knowledge of the events.

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) January 7, 2021

Thursday, Jan 7, 2021 · 1:31:02 AM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

The @sfchronicle Editorial Board: "He should be removed from office immediately, whether through resignation, impeachment or the 25th Amendment’s prescription for dealing with a president unfit to serve."https://t.co/M6yiHpjSpt

— Marc Rumminger (@mentalmasala) January 7, 2021

Thursday, Jan 7, 2021 · 1:35:44 AM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

From the Washington Post Editorial Board: Trump caused the assault on the Capitol. He must be removed. https://t.co/ZPHJGvmdTP pic.twitter.com/T9wqtBwJBx

— Washington Post Opinions (@PostOpinions) January 7, 2021

Thursday, Jan 7, 2021 · 1:54:42 AM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Trump can NOT remain in office any longer.

— US Rep Kathy Castor (@USRepKCastor) January 7, 2021

Thursday, Jan 7, 2021 · 1:58:01 AM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

I am calling on Vice President Pence and the Cabinet to invoke the 25th amendment and protect our country. Enough is enough.

— Rep. Sylvia Garcia (@RepSylviaGarcia) January 7, 2021

Thursday, Jan 7, 2021 · 1:58:23 AM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

CBS News reports members of the Cabinet are considering the 25h Amendment: pic.twitter.com/fN47wXj0G7

— The Recount (@therecount) January 7, 2021

Calls for the application of the 25th Amendment aren’t new when it comes to Trump. His 26,000+ documented lies, his frequent lapses into lengthy conspiracy theories, and his refusal to admit an error even when it’s obvious have made Trump’s ability to carry out any reasonable action long open to challenge. But in the light of what happened on Wednesday, with Trump both encouraging an invasion of the U.S. Capitol, and then reassuring the insurrectionists that they are “very special” and he “loves” them, the idea of moving Trump out immediately through this action has reached a new level.

Conservative organizations like the National Association of Manufacturers have called for Pence to remove Trump by invoking the 25th Amendment. So have members of Congress and former officials. 

But it goes beyond people calling for the 25th Amendment. Several people have wondered if that amendment has already been invoked. When the National Guard was finally authorized to come to D. C. and assist in regaining control of the Capitol building and surrounding area, it wasn’t Trump’s name on the order. It was Pence.

That has surprised a number of people, and led to some serious speculation. So have the statements about Pence that seem to be coming in from a number of Republicans.

Again, this seems like 25A may have already been triggered. https://t.co/BJSEfJxByn

— Dr. emptywheel (@emptywheel) January 6, 2021

Considering the frightening video that Trump put out on Wednesday afternoon, and the equally disturbing tweet he issued an hour later, this certainly seems justifiable. And it seems like even some of his staunchest Republican supporters might be finding that sticking with Trump is becoming more difficult.

I asked @RepAnnWagner today whether @realDonaldTrump should resign or whether @Mike_Pence should invoke the 25th Amendment. Here's her response: pic.twitter.com/hNtILUQenF

— Jason Rosenbaum (@jrosenbaum) January 6, 2021

If Pence has taken action … good. But that’s no reason to halt the efforts at impeachment. There is absolutely no law that says both actions can’t go be in the works at the same time.

Thursday, Jan 7, 2021 · 12:01:55 AM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

.@Acosta: "I will tell you, Jake, I talked to a source, a GOP source close to the president who speaks with him regularly, and I take no pleasure in reporting this, but this source tells me that he believes the president is out of his mind." pic.twitter.com/Ld7r2hLnSH

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 6, 2021

Thursday, Jan 7, 2021 · 12:05:38 AM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

The president has had not one word of criticism for the domestic terrorists who stormed the US Capitol today, who left a pipe bomb outside the RNC. Not one word.

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) January 6, 2021

Thursday, Jan 7, 2021 · 12:22:23 AM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Tonight, I am asking Vice President Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment and begin the process of removing President Trump from office.

— Rep. Lucy McBath (@RepLucyMcBath) January 7, 2021

Thursday, Jan 7, 2021 · 12:24:53 AM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

This makes it sound like Pence has taken over, but without invoking the amendment. 

More evidence that the Vice President is carrying out the duties of the presidency to secure the Capitol and more.👇 From Vice President Mike Pence’s office: pic.twitter.com/DtXkHvgzNK

— Ryan Goodman (@rgoodlaw) January 7, 2021