Senate Minority Leader Chuck SchumerCredit:Bloomberg
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer also called on Friday AEDT for the the Cabinet to remove him.
In a statement,Schumer said the attack on the Capitol"was an insurrection against the United States,incited by the president". He said Trump"should not hold office one day longer".
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Schumer said Pence and the Cabinet should invoke the 25th Amendment and immediately remove Trump from office. Otherwise,he said,it's up to Congress.
“If the Vice-President and the Cabinet refuse to stand up,Congress should reconvene to impeach the President,” Schumer said.
As Pelosi suggested impeachment was a possibility,three Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee announced articles of impeachment. House representatives David Cicilline of Rhode Island,Jamie Raskin of Maryland and Ted Lieu of California wrote in the articles that Trump “willfully made statements that encouraged — and foreseeably resulted in — imminent lawless action at the Capitol”.
The House impeached Trump in 2019,but the Republican-led Senate acquitted him in early 2020.
At least one House Republican also called for Trump’s removal. Illinois representative Adam Kinzinger,a frequent Trump critic,said in a video on Twitter that Trump is “unfit” and “unwell”.
Kinzinger said the President “must now relinquish control of the executive branch voluntarily or involuntarily”.
Former Republican Senator Jeff Flake,who’s clashed with Trump for years,said he doesn’t think invoking the 25th Amendment is realistic because of the support it would need from Cabinet members and because of the short time left in Trump’s term. But he said in an interview that he supported the decisions both by some White House and administration officials to quit and others who are remaining “to ensure that basically the guard rails stay where they should”.
Flake added:“We’ve got two weeks here,and let’s make sure we get to the inauguration.”