President Donald Trump found himself under intense political pressure on Friday during his presidency – with only twelve days left in office – under calls to resign and the possibility of becoming the first president to be charged twice. to become.
When he tried to curb the setback of his call to supporters to march to the Capitol, a crowd launched a deadly uprising, he issued a written video message Thursday night condemning the rioters after initially targeting them. of the aftermath Wednesday praised as “great patriots”.
When he also said on Friday morning: “My focus now is to ensure a smooth orderly and seamless transition of power,” he said he was not inaugurating his soon-to-be successor, Pres. Elected President Joe Biden, will not attend.
“To everyone who asked, I will not go to the inauguration on January 20,” Trump said. tweeted Friday morning.
The Democrats on Capitol Hill, after asking for his immediate dismissal from office under the 25th Amendment, are nearing the start of a swift indictment. Some Republicans in Congress will not rule out supporting Trump’s removal.
The editors of the Wall Street Journal said Trump should resign.
Conflicting messages from Trump
Nearly 30 hours after the Capitol storms, Trump shared a video message Thursday night condemning the violence but accepting no responsibility for the rioters.
“America is and must always be a nation of law and order. The protesters who invaded the Capitol have polluted the seat of American democracy,” Trump said in a video posted on Twitter the day before. account closed. “To those who are preoccupied with violence and destruction. You do not represent our country. And to those who have transgressed the law. You will pay. ‘
The president’s clearer condemnation Thursday night stood in stark contrast to his hour-long silence throughout the day, as well as his refusal to tell his supporters on Wednesday to leave the Capitol until the hours are over. Even then he said to them, ‘We love you’ and ‘You are very special’.
The president’s daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner, both senior White House advisers, pressured Trump to record the second video after receiving calls from members of Congress and other allies urging them to do more for the president , according to people known. with their involvement.
The White House office also urged Trump to lower the temperature because he feared the president had legal exposure to his words and rhetoric during a Wednesday rally near the White House, where he urged his supporters to to march the Capitol, those people. said.
“We need to revive the sacred bonds of love and loyalty that bind us together as one national family,” Trump said in Thursday night’s video in which he admitted for the first time that a new government would be inaugurated on January 20. “However, he did not mention Biden’s name.
Wednesday’s chaos on Capitol Hill led to the deaths of five people, including U.S. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who died Thursday night.
As of Friday afternoon, Trump has not commented on Sicknick’s death, although White House spokesman Judd Deere said Friday morning that “the president and the entire government are directing our prayers to Capitol police officer Brian Sicknick’s family. , because we all mourn the loss of this American hero. ”
However, Trump took to Twitter on Friday to speak directly with his followers.
“The 75,000,000 great American patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and MAKING AMERICA AGAIN, will have a HUGE VOTE for the future,” the outgoing president wrote. “They will in no way, shape or form, be despised or treated !!!”
Drumbeat for Trump’s departure from office grows
Calls to remove Trump from office grew on Friday, with Democrats on Capitol Hill promising to accuse the president for a second time if Vice President Pence did not act to call for the 25th amendment, which making it possible to get rid of a president. powers with the support of the Vice President and a majority of Cabinet members.
While sources told ABC News that members of the president’s cabinet were in fact having detailed discussions about the possibility, it seems impossible with only 12 days left in the presidential term.
Pence himself did not hold any public events on Thursday or Friday, and on Thursday he completely avoided the White House complex and, according to his senior administration officer, stayed at his residence in Washington.
Trump also had no public events on any day, although on Thursday he awarded the country’s highest honor, the Medal of Freedom, to three golfers in an event that banned the press. He had planned to travel to Camp David this weekend, but the trip was canceled, according to a White House official.
Officials jump in recent days
Although the vice president may not want to act to remove the president by force, two members of the president’s cabinet have already let him down by stepping directly away from the administration.
Education Secretary Betsy Devos and Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, who is also the wife of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, resigned in protest of the events Wednesday. In addition, eight other members of the administration also resigned, and the possibility exists that more resignations may follow.
Former chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, who has served as US envoy to Northern Ireland since leaving the White House, said on Thursday that some officials he spoke to preferred to stay because they were worried that the president someone can post. erger in. ”
Another of the president’s former chiefs of staff, John Kelly, who also served under Trump as secretary of home security, said Pence should convene the cabinet to consider removing the president and that if he is still in government, is, for the President’s immediate removal.
“What happened on Capitol Hill yesterday is a direct result of the poisoning of people’s minds with lies and deception,” Kelly said Thursday. “He is a very, very flawed man. I’m not a psychiatrist. I could never address anything that has to do with mental health. I would just say a flawed man who has serious character issues. ‘
Trump’s recently deceased attorney general, Bill Barr, has also joined former administrative officials. “The orchestration of a mob to pressure Congress is inexcusable,” Barr said in a statement. ‘The president’s behavior [Wednesday] was a betrayal of his office and supporters. ‘
Biden has not yet said whether he supports the president’s immediate resignation from office, but has issued a strong repudiation of Wednesday’s events and that other Democrats blamed the president for the uprising.
“We can see it coming,” Biden said Thursday. “For the past four years, we have had a president who has made his contempt for our democracy, our Constitution, the rule of law clear in everything he has done.”
“From the outset, he launched an all-out attack on our democratic institutions,” Biden said. “And yesterday was only the culmination of the ongoing attack.”
ABC News, Jonathan Karl and Elizabeth Thomas, contributed to this report.