Day 1,452: Dems to Pence: invoke the 25th Amendment or Trump will be impeached this week
After an attempted insurrection encouraged by Donald Trump and the fallout and instability by Trump that followed, Democrats are prepared to issue articles of impeachment within days.
With just 10 days left in Trump’s term, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has told Mike Pence that if he doesn’t invoke the 25th Amendment, the impeachment articles will be voted on and surely pass.
Pelosi made clear in a letter to her members that if Pence refuses to act, Democrats will immediately move to force Trump from office for his role in inciting violent riots at the Capitol on Wednesday linked to at least five deaths, including a police officer. Pence so far has shown no willingness to meet Democrats’ demands, making an impeachment vote almost certain this week.
“In protecting our Constitution and our Democracy, we will act with urgency, because this President represents an imminent threat to both,” Pelosi said in the letter to Democrats on Sunday night laying out next steps.
The House will try to pass a measure on Monday imploring Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment, through which he and the Cabinet declare Trump “incapable of executing the duties of his office, after which the Vice President would immediately exercise powers as acting president.” If Republicans object, as is virtually certain, Democrats will pass the bill via a roll call vote on Tuesday.
“We are calling on the Vice President to respond within 24 hours,” Pelosi wrote. “Next, we will proceed with bringing impeachment legislation to the Floor.”
Trump and Pence, by all accounts, have virtually no relationship these days. But that doesn’t mean that Pence is likely to try and invoke the 25th Amendment, wherein a majority of the Cabinet and Pence would deliver to Congress notice that Trump is unfit or unable to continue in his role. Still, Cabinet members are jumping ship, likely trying to avoid a potential vote should one come up.
For his part, Trump clearly thinks Pence doesn’t have the fortitude to go for the unprecedented step, as the former plans a defiant and destructive week. Even if Democrats do impeach him, Trump knows there isn’t enough time for a vote on the articles to remove him before Joe Biden’s January 20 inauguration.
Still, by week’s end, it appears all but certain that Trump will be the first president in American history to be impeached twice or the first president in American history to be removed from office by his vice president and members of his own Cabinet.
1,452 days in, 10 to go
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