WASHINGTON (AP) – Democrats in Congress have issued a warning for the immediate accusation of President Donald Trump, demanding decisive, immediate action to ensure that an ‘unaffiliated’ commander-in-chief cannot contribute to the damage they are doing to nuclear power. has or even ignited. war in his last days in office.
As the country agrees to the violent siege of the American Capitol by Trump supporters who left five dead, the crisis that appears to be under the last acts of his presidency, deepens like few periods in the country’s history. With less than two weeks to go, the Democrats now want him out – and he has few defenders speaking for him in his own Republican party.
“We must act,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Friday in a private conference call with Democrats.
And one prominent Republican, Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, told the Anchorage Daily News that Trump simply “needs to get out.”
The last days of Trump’s presidency are turning towards a chaotic end when he makes holes in the White House, left by many assistants, top Republicans and cabinet members. After refusing to concede defeat in the November election, he has now promised a smooth transfer of power when the elected Democratic president, Joe Biden, is sworn in on January 20. But still he says he will not attend the inauguration – the first such presidential coup since just after the civil war.
In Congress, where many people are watching the president break norms for four years and test the country’s protection rails of democracy, Democrats are unwilling to take further chances with only a few days left in his term. The chaos that erupted at the Capitol on Wednesday stunned the world and threatened the traditional peaceful transfer of power.
Pelosi said she had spoken to Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley “to discuss available precautions to prevent an unstable president from launching military hostilities or gaining access to the launch codes” for nuclear war. She said Milley ensures that her years of precautionary measures are in place.
The president has the sole power to order the launch of a nuclear weapon, but a military commander could refuse the order if it were illegal. Trump has not made such threats in public, but officials warn of serious danger if the president is left unnoticed.
“This fearless president could not be more dangerous,” Pelosi said of the current situation.
Biden, meanwhile, said he was focused on his job as he prepared to take over. Asked about the indictment, he said: “It is a decision that Congress must make.”
The Democrats are considering taking swift action. In a draft of their articles of indictment, Trump is accused of abusing power, saying he “deliberately made statements that encouraged threatening lawless action at the Capitol – and this predictably resulted”, according to a person familiar with the details obtained anonymity to discuss them.
The articles are expected to be released Monday, with a vote in the House as soon as Wednesday.
If Trump is indicted by the House and convicted by the Senate, he could also be prevented from running for the presidency again in 2024 or ever holding a public office again. He would only be accused twice by the president. A person on the call said Pelosi also discussed other ways Trump would be forced to resign.
According to an assistant who provided anonymity, senators from a two-party group called their own call to consider options for congressional actions.
The White House does not argue that it is useful. Trump spokesman Judd Deere said: “A politically motivated accusation against a president with 12 days left in his term will only further divide our country.”
Trump tweeted again on Friday, his Twitter account was restored after a brief ban, and he returned to an aggressive statement that his supporters should not be ‘despised’ after sending out a quieter video of Thursday in which he rejected violence. By evening, Twitter said it was permanently suspending it from its platform, citing “the risk of further incitement to violence”.
The first time the Senate could begin an indictment according to the current calendar would be on January 20, the Inauguration Day.
Conviction in the Republican Senate at this late date seems unlikely, although many Republicans have remained silent on the issue in the wake of Trump’s disintegration of the party.
One Trump ally, Republican minority leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California, did speak, saying as the White House did: “the president’s accusation of having only 12 days left in his term will only divide our country more. ”
McCarthy said he had issued Biden and planned to talk to the elected president of the Democratic Republic about cooperating to lower the temperature.
But Murkowski said she wants Trump to resign now, and not wait for Biden’s January 20 oath.
“I want him out,” she said in a telephone interview with the Anchorage newspaper.
Another leading Republican critic of Trump, Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska, said he would definitely consider accusations.
Strong criticism of Trump, who urged the protesters to march to the Capitol, continued unabated.
“Every day if he stays in office, he is a danger to the Republic,” said Adam Schiff, D-Calif.
Schiff, who led Trump’s indictment in 2019, said in a statement that Trump “lit the fuse that exploded at the Capitol on Wednesday.”
Later, Vermont Independent Bernie Sanders tweeted that some people are asking why they should accuse a president who only has a few days in office?
‘The answer: precedent. “It must be made clear that no president, now or in the future, can lead an uprising against the US government,” Sanders said.
Pelosi and Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer both called Biden late Friday.
They called on Vice President Mike Pence and the cabinet to call for the 25th amendment to force Trump out of office. It is a process of removing the president and installing the vice president to take over.
Pelosi later said the option remains on the table. But action by Pence or the Cabinet now appears unlikely, especially after two top officials, Education Minister Betsy DeVos and Transport Secretary Elaine Chao, abruptly resigned in the wake of the violence and would no longer be in the cabinet. to make such a case.
Trump urged loyalists during a rally in the White House on Wednesday to march to the Capitol where Congress certifies Biden’s Electoral College election.
The House accused Trump in 2019, but the Republican Senate acquitted him in early 2020.
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Associated Press authors Alan Fram and Alexandra Jaffe contributed to this report.