President Donald Trump was on Friday under the most extreme political pressure he had to face during his presidency – with only 12 days to hold office – under calls for resignation and the possibility of becoming the first president charged twice.
Trying to contain the reaction to the call for supporters to march on the Capitol, with the result that a crowd launched a deadly insurrection, he issued a scripted video message Thursday evening condemning riot police after initially praising them in the midst of the riots. consequences of Wednesday as “great patriots.”
Then, on Friday morning, after also saying that “my goal now is to ensure an orderly and smooth transition of power,” he said he would not attend the inauguration of his next successor, President-elect Joe Biden.
“To all those who have asked, I will not go to the inauguration on January 20,” Trump said he tweeted Friday morning.
Capitol Hill Democrats, after calling for his immediate removal from office under the 25th Amendment, came close on Friday to begin swift removal processes. Some Republicans in Congress would not rule out supporting Trump’s ouster.
The Wall Street Journal editorial board said Trump should resign.
Conflicting messages from Trump
Nearly 30 hours after the Capitol storm, Trump shared a video message Thursday night condemning the violence, but he is not responsible for causing the riots.
“America is and must always be a nation of public order, protesters who infiltrated the Capitol have polluted the seat of American democracy,” Trump said in the video posted on Twitter, which the day before he had closed his account. “To those who took part in acts of violence and destruction. You do not represent our country. And to those who broke the law. You will pay. “
The president’s clearest condemnation Thursday night contrasted with his all-day silence, as well as his refusal on Wednesday to tell his supporters to leave the Capitol until the hours were up. Even then, he told them, “We love you” and “You’re very special.”
The president’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, and her husband, Jared Kushner, both White House advisers, pushed Trump to record the second video after receiving calls from members of Congress and other allies begging them to the president do more, according to acquaintances. with their involvement.
The White House counselor’s office had also pushed for Trump to lower the temperature, as he feared the president would have legal exposure for his words and rhetoric at a rally Wednesday near the White House, where he encouraged his followers to march to the Capitol. dit.
“We need to revitalize the sacred bonds of love and loyalty that unite us as one national family,” Trump said in the video Thursday night, in which he conceded for the first time that a new administration will be inaugurated on the 20th. January “. However, he did not mention Biden’s name.
Wednesday’s chaos on Capitol Hill killed five people, including U.S. police officer Brian Sicknick, who died Thursday night.
As of noon on Friday, Trump had not commented on Sicknick’s death, although a White House spokesman, Judd Deere, said Friday morning that “the president and the entire administration are extending our prayers to the family of Capitol police officer Brian Sicknick as we all mourn the loss of this American hero. “
Trump on Friday, yes, took to Twitter to speak directly to his followers.
“The 75,000,000 great American patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and BACK AMERICA, will have a giant voice in the future,” the outgoing president said he wrote. “They will not be respected or treated unfairly in any way, form or form !!!”
The battery for Trump’s removal from office is growing
Petitions for Trump’s ouster grew Friday, and Capitol Hill Democrats pledged to take steps to oust the president a second time if Vice President Pence failed to act to invoke the 25th Amendment, which allows a president to be stripped of his powers with the support of the vice president and most cabinet members.
Although sources have told ABC News that members of the president’s cabinet have held detailed talks on this possibility, it seems unlikely to happen with just 12 days to end the president’s term.
Pence himself did not hold any public events on Thursday or Friday and on Thursday completely avoided the White House complex, instead staying at his residence in Washington, according to a senior administration official.
Trump also did not have any public events on either day, although on Thursday he awarded the nation’s highest honor, the Medal of Freedom, to three golfers at an event at which the press was banned. He had planned to travel to Camp David this weekend, but the trip was canceled, according to a White House official.
Officials jumping boats in recent days
Although the vice president cannot move to remove the president by force, two members of the president’s cabinet have already left him leaving 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 Wednesday’s events. In addition, eight other members of the administration have also resigned and there is still the possibility that more resignations may occur.
The former chief of staff to President Mick Mulvaney, who has been the U.S. envoy to Northern Ireland since he left the White House, said on Thursday that some officials with whom he had spoken “choose to stay because the worries that the president will make someone worse. “
Another former president’s chief of staff, John Kelly, who also served under Trump’s presidency as national security secretary, said Pence should convene the cabinet to consider removing the president and that, if he were still in the administration, he would vote for the immediate removal of the president.
“What happened yesterday on Capitol Hill is the direct result of its intoxication by the minds of people with lies and fraud,” Kelly said Thursday. “He is a very, very defective man. I am not a psychiatrist. I could never address anything that had to do with mental health. I would just say he’s a very flawed man who has serious character issues. “
Attorney General Bill Barr, recently ousted from Trump, also joined the former administration’s excess of charges. “Orchestrating a crowd to pressure Congress is inexcusable,” Barr said in a statement. “The conduct of the president [Wednesday] it was a betrayal of his office and his supporters. “
Biden has yet to say whether he is in favor of the immediate removal of the president, but he issued a strong repudiation of Wednesday’s events and echoed other Democrats in blaming the president for the insurgency.
“We could see it coming,” Biden said Thursday. “For the past four years we have had a president who has made clear his contempt for our democracy, our Constitution and the rule of law in everything he has done.”
“It unleashed a total assault on our institutions of our democracy from the very beginning,” Biden said. “And yesterday was but the culmination of this relentless attack.”
Jonathan Karl and Elizabeth Thomas of ABC News contributed to this report.