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Biden said he has long felt Trump is unfit for the presidency, but that with 12 days until the inauguration he is focused on his agenda, particularly addressing the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent economic fallout.
Pressed on what guidance he would give to Congress if asked for his thoughts on impeachment, he again deferred. I d tell them that s a decision for the Congress to make. I m focused on my job, he said.
The president-elect later indicated he felt the best course of action may be to simply let the clock run out on Trump s term. I think it s important we get on with the business of getting him out of office. The quickest way that will happen is us getting sworn in on the 20th, Biden said. What happens before or after that is a judgment for the Congress to make, but that s what I m looking forward to: him leaving office.
Pelosi voiced her anger at Trump on the call “The president chose to be an insurrectionist,” she said but she’s hoping the threat of impeachment will increase pressure on Pence to act.
“Impeachment encourages conversation on the 25th Amendment. That’s picked up a lot of steam,” the Speaker said on Friday’s call. “How we go forward is a subject for this caucus.”
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Yet on a separate call a day earlier, Pelosi appeared to be leaning toward the impeachment route and told her leadership team that Trump’s actions had left them no choice, sources said.
Pelosi planned to speak with Biden by phone on Friday afternoon. The president-elect said earlier in the day it was up to the Congress to decide whether to press forward with impeachment so close to Inauguration Day.
Chao and DeVos are the latest in a wave of resignations from various administration officials in the wake of a riot at the U.S. Capitol by supporters of the president and are the first two Cabinet secretaries to resign.
“For two Cabinet members to resign, that says to me that they’re running away from their responsibilities,” Clyburn continued. “If they feel that strongly, they would stay there and wait on this meeting where they can cast two of the votes that are necessary to invoke the 25th Amendment. They’re running away.”
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If Pence doesn’t remove Trump from office, @WhipClyburn says the House has the votes “to put forth articles of impeachment and [Trump] will be the only president to be impeached twice .
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Blunt added in a separate interview with KSHB, another Missouri TV station, that impeaching Trump was not going to happen.
Though the House would need to pass articles of impeachment, the Senate would hold the trial and ultimately vote on whether to convict Trump and remove him from office.
Blunt is the highest-ranking Senate Republican to weigh in on calls from a growing number of Democrats for Trump to be impeached after a mob came to the Capitol as lawmakers were counting the Electoral College vote.
Trump has claimed for weeks that the election was rigged, even as his legal team lost dozens of court challenges and election experts dismissed allegations of widespread voter fraud.
In a letter to colleagues reflecting on the week when pro-Trump rioters breached the Capitol, Pelosi outlined a call with Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley
“This morning, I spoke to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley to discuss available precautions for preventing an unstable president from initiating military hostilities or accessing the launch codes and ordering a nuclear strike,” she wrote. “The situation of this unhinged president could not be more dangerous, and we must do everything that we can to protect the American people from his unbalanced assault on our country and our democracy.”