WASHINGTON (AP) – With intermittent warnings, Democrats in Congress set out plans for a speedy removal of President Donald Trump, demanding immediate and decisive action to ensure that a commander in no “inimitable” can add to the damage they say has caused not even to ignite the nuclear war core in his last days in office.
As the country is accepted with the violent siege of the United States Capitol by Trump supporters that left five dead, the crisis that seems to be between the final acts of his presidency is deepening like few other periods in the country’s history. With less than two weeks to go, Democrats want him out (now) and he has few advocates speaking out for him in his own Republican party.
“We need to take action,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday in a private conference with Democrats.
And a prominent Republican, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, told the Anchorage Daily News that Trump simply “has to get out.”
The last days of Trump’s presidency are turning to a chaotic end as he makes a hole in the White House, abandoned by many aides, Republicans and cabinet members. After refusing to concede defeat in the November election, he has now promised a good transfer of power when Democratic President-elect Joe Biden takes office on January 20th. But he still says he will not attend the inauguration: the first presidential disagreement since just after the Civil War.
In Congress, where many have watched and staggered as the president spent four years breaking the rules and testing the railings of the nation’s democracy, Democrats are unwilling to take any more risks when there are only a few days left to end his term. The chaos that erupted Wednesday at the Capitol shocked the world and threatened the traditional peaceful transfer of power.
Pelosi said he had spoken with the chairman of the joint chief of staff, General Mark Milley, to “discuss available precautions to prevent an unstable president from initiating military hostilities or accessing the launch codes” of nuclear war. He said Milley assured that his long-standing guarantees existed.
The president has the sole authority to order the launch of a nuclear weapon, but a military commander could reject the order if it was determined to be illegal. Trump has not publicly made such threats, but officials warn of grave danger if control is left unchecked.
“This dishonored president couldn’t be more dangerous,” Pelosi said of the current situation.
Meanwhile, Biden said he is focusing on his job as he prepares to take office. Asked about the dismissal, he said, “This is a decision that Congress must make.”
Democrats consider it a swift action. A draft of his indictments accuses Trump of abuse of power, saying he “made intentional statements that encouraged and predictably led to imminent illegal action at the Capitol,” according to a person familiar with the details who were granted anonymity to discuss them.
Articles are expected to be tabled on Monday, with a vote in the House as early as Wednesday.
If Trump were indicted by the House and convicted by the Senate, he could also be barred from running for president again in 2024 or holding public office again. He would only be the accused president twice. One person in the call said Pelosi also discussed other ways in which Trump could be forced to resign.
Senators from a bipartisan group convened their own convocation to consider options for action in Congress, according to an aide who granted anonymity to reveal private discussions.
Not useful, the White House argued. Trump spokesman Judd Deere said: “A politically motivated dismissal of a president with 12 days left in office will only serve to further divide our great country.”
Trump was tweeting 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 he posted a quieter video of the Thursday denouncing the violence. Towards evening, Twitter said it was definitely suspending him from his platform, citing “the risk of inciting violence.”
As soon as the Senate can begin a trial of dismissal according to the current calendar would be January 20, the day of the inauguration.
The condemnation in the Republican Senate on this late date seems unlikely, although as a sign of the destruction of the Trump party, many Republicans fell silent on the issue.
A Trump ally, California Representative Kevin McCarthy, representing the Republican minority leader, spoke, saying how the White House did that “accusing the president with just 12 days to end his term will only further divide our country. ”
McCarthy said he came to Biden and plans to talk to the Democratic president-elect about how to work together to “lower the temperature.”
But Murkowski said he wants to fire Trump now, not wait for Biden to swear on Jan. 20.
“I want him out,” he said in a phone interview with the Anchorage newspaper.
Another leading Republican critic of Trump, Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska, said he would “definitely consider” the removal.
Strong criticism of Trump, who urged protesters to march on the Capitol, continued unabated.
“Every day he remains in office is a danger to the Republic,” said Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.
Schiff, who led Trump’s ouster in 2019, said in a statement that Trump “lit the fuse that exploded Wednesday at the Capitol.”
Senator Bernie Sanders, the Vermont Independent, tweeted about the fact that some people are wondering, why accuse a president who only has a few days left in office?
“The answer: Previous. It must be made clear that no president, neither now nor in the future, can lead an insurrection against the United States government, ”Sanders said.
Pelosi and Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer had private calls with Biden last Friday.
They have asked Vice President Mike Pence and the Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment to force Trump to step down. It is a process to remove the president and install the vice president to take over.
Pelosi later said that option remains on the table. But the action of Pence or the cabinet now seems unlikely, especially after two senior officials, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and Transport Secretary Elaine Chao, suddenly resigned after the violence and were no longer in the cabinet for present this case.
Trump had encouraged loyalists at a rally Wednesday in the White House to march on the Capitol, where Congress was certifying the count of Biden’s election to the Electoral College.
The House indicted Trump in 2019, but the Republican-led Senate acquitted him in early 2020.
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Associated Press writers Alan Fram and Alexandra Jaffe contributed to this report.