“He needs to be charged and removed,” said one current Republican-elected official.
A former senior official said the president’s actions were bad enough to remove him, even with a brief stint in office.
“I think it was a big shock to the system,” the former official said. “How do you keep him in place for two weeks after this?”
By accusing and removing Trump, even at this late stage of his term, the Senate could then vote to disqualify Trump from ever holding a federal office again. On the other hand, an appeal to the 25th Amendment would require Vice President Mike Pence and a majority of the Cabinet to vote to remove Trump from office because of his inability to ‘fulfill the powers and duties of his office’ – an unprecedented step.
Within minutes of protesters crossing the Capitol on Wednesday, Republicans redesigned the idea of removing Trump from office, a choice almost everyone handed over a year ago during a process of indictment.
Wyoming, Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, a member of the House leadership, reiterated Romney’s anger and frustration over Trump. “There is no doubt that the president formed the mob. The president incited the mob, the president addressed the mob,” Cheney told Fox News. “He lit the flame.”
And Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, an otherwise loyal ally of Trump, was spared. “It’s lately that the president has accepted the outcome of the election, stopped deceiving the American people and rejected the violence of the mob,” Cotton said.
Other Republicans on Capitol Hill were also furious about the president.
“The president needs to turn it off,” Wisconsin’s Mike Gallagher told CNN’s Jake Tapper. ‘Call it! It’s over. The election is over. ‘
“It’s cowardice,” Kinzinger told Tapper. “He has to stand up and say, ‘I lost the election, let the count go on.’
But since Trump is unlikely to make the concessions, two longtime Republican activists and White House allies have said the president should go.
“Pence must act against him on the 25th amendment,” one said.
“They should call for the 25th amendment immediately,” the other said.