Suspected Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has called on Vice President Mike Pence to call for the 25th amendment to remove President Donald Trump from office.
“What happened at the U.S. Capitol yesterday was an uprising against the United States, incited by the president,” Schumer, DN.Y., said in a statement Thursday. “This president should not one day hold office.”
Schumer joins a growing contingent of lawmakers from both parties to appeal Trump’s removal, either by using the 25th Amendment or by accusation.
“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 appeal to the 25th Amendment,” Schumer said. “If the vice president and the cabinet refuse to stand up, Congress should meet again to accuse the president,” he added.
Under the provision of the 25th Amendment, the vice president, with the support of the majority of the president’s cabinet, can recall the measure and declare Trump unfit for office, which could lead to his early removal. Under such a scenario, the vice president would immediately take over as acting president.
The attack on the Capitol came after Trump spoke to the crowd and encouraged them to march to the building, saying, “You will never take back our country with weakness, you must show strength and you must be strong.”
Earlier Thursday, Representative Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., Called on Pence to call for the 25th amendment to remove Trump from office and become the first Republican to do so.
In an interview with MSNBC, Kinzinger described Trump as “unmoved, not only of his duty or even of his oath, but of reality itself” and said Pence, and the rest of Trump’s cabinet, should call for the measure to to end it. nightmare. ”
“The president is incompetent and the president is bad. “And the president must now voluntarily or involuntarily relinquish control of the executive,” he said.
Several sources familiar with the matter told NBC News late Wednesday that there had been informal talks about the call for the 25th amendment among staff within the Trump administration.
It is unclear whether cabinet-level officials discussed the matter; two sources said the issue had not been discussed with Pence, who will have to agree with a majority of the cabinet to empower the vice president under the 25th amendment.
The talks were fueled in part by concerns about unrest and insurgency in the United States over the next two weeks before President-elect Joe Biden is sworn in as 20th.
However, prominent members of both parties also warned against taking such drastic action – albeit for very different reasons.
Brian Fallon, executive director of the progressive reform group Supreme Court Demand Justice, who served as Hillary Clinton’s press secretary during the 2016 campaign, tweeted that calling for the 25th Amendment would be merely an “outcome” for Republicans, who he accused him of not taking Trump accountable.
Meanwhile, John Bolton, who served as Trump’s national security adviser for nearly 18 months in 2018 and 2019, said the call for the measure would further fuel tensions in the US.
“I admit it’s dangerous, but I’m going to say again, ‘we need to keep in mind the saying’ do no harm ‘because you can make it worse if we are not careful,” he told CNN late Wednesday.
