Texas, United States
Eight days before the end of his term, U.S. President Donald Trump assured Tuesday that he will not be ousted and called for calm during his first outing since the Capitol was taken by his supporters, who left five dead and shocked the country.
“The 25th Amendment is zero risk to me,” he said in Alamo, Texas, alluding to Democratic pressure on Vice President Mike Pence for Trump, with cabinet support, to remove Trump from power by consider him unfit to hold office.
“Now is the time for our nation to recover and it is time for peace and calm,” the Republican leader added, in a speech that contrasted with the virulent speech he delivered on January 6 against the his supporters just before the assault on the Capitol.
More isolated than ever in his own party, Trump he could become the first American president to be subjected twice to a political trial.
The House of Representatives will consider on Wednesday the charge of “inciting violence against the government”, the vote is expected on the same day.
Leaving Washington in the morning, Trump denouncing this procedure initiated by Democrats, calling it “totally ridiculous” and claiming it generated “immense anger” across the United States.
Trump declined to acknowledge any responsibility for the riot, saying his speech was “totally appropriate” and denouncing the “catastrophic error” of social media, such as Twitter and Facebook, which suspended his account accusing him of to incite violence.
Trump met Monday with Pence, who apparently has decided to turn down orders to remove him from office.
In Texas, the president celebrated the wall on the border with Mexico.
“I kept my promises,” he said, alluding to the 725-kilometer (450-mile) barrier erected at the 3,200-kilometer common border.
Trump’s wall
However, the “big, magnificent” wall promised by Trump in 2016 it was not completed. Of the total completed, only about 20 km have been built in areas where before there was no physical barrier. The rest corresponds to improvements or reinforcements of existing barriers.
And Mexico never paid for the wall, as Trump had promised.
The American president took the opportunity to praise his Mexican counterpart, the “great gentleman” Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
“I want to thank him for his friendship and his professional working relationship,” Trump said in highlighting his support in controlling the common border.
– Second “impeachment” –
With the support of a large number of Democrats, and with the possible support of Republicans, the indictment against Trump is expected to be easily passed in the lower house.
Trump was already undergoing an “impeachment,” when he was accused in December 2019 of pressuring the Ukrainian president to investigate an alleged corruption case of Joe Biden, the current president-elect and who then emerged as his main rival. Trump was eventually acquitted by the Republican-majority Senate.
The doubt remains about the course and outcome of the trial that will then be held in the Senate, currently with a Republican majority.
Democrats will take control of the upper house on Jan. 20, but will need the support of many Republicans to get the two-thirds majority needed to condemn the president.
Get Trump out of power
A political trial a Trump it would also run the risk of hampering Democratic legislative action at the start of Biden’s presidency, by monopolizing Senate sessions.
At the same time, Democrats want to pass a resolution Tuesday night calling on Vice President Pence to remove the president from office.
Until they remove him from power, Republicans’ “complicity” with Trump will “endanger the United States,” powerful Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi warned Monday.
Biden will be sworn in under a large security device on January 20, right on the steps of the Capitol, the seat of the United States Congress.
Criticized for his delay in sending the National Guard last Wednesday, the Pentagon authorized the deployment of 15,000 troops for the investiture ceremony.
“I’m not afraid,” Biden said Monday about the risks of new pro-Trump demonstrations.
The president-elect called for the prosecution of all those involved in last Wednesday’s “insurrection” acts.
Biden has big challenges ahead: he will face an uncontrolled covid-19 pandemic, a chaotic vaccination program, an unstable economy, and now the aftermath of violent political opposition from much of Trump’s huge voter base.