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.
“Absolutely not. No,” Manchin told The Washington Post in an interview published Friday. “Getting people vaccinated, that’s job No. 1.”
“How is the money that we invest now going to help us best to get jobs back and get people employed? And I can’t tell you that sending another check out is gonna do that to a person that’s already got a check,” he said.
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Manchin in a tweet, later said if a new round of checks go out, they should be targeted to ensure they go to those in need.
If the next round of stimulus checks goes out they should be targeted to those who need it. https://t.co/MWvt9EHOBS Senator Joe Manchin (@Sen JoeManchin) January 8, 2021
In a statement, Perdue noted that while he finished ahead of Ossoff in the November general election, he had fallen short in the Jan. 5 runoff election, one of two in Georgia that helped hand Democrats control of the Senate.
“Although we won the general election, we came up just short of Georgia’s 50% rule, and now I want to congratulate the Democratic Party and my opponent for this runoff win,” Perdue said. “Bonnie and I will continue to pray for our wonderful state and our great country. May God continue to bless Georgia and the United States of America.”
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Biden made the remarks Friday afternoon as he introduced Boston Mayor Marty Walsh
“I did give serious consideration to nominating my friend Bernie Sanders to this position. I’m confident he could have done a fantastic job,” Biden said. “I can think of no more passionate, devoted ally to working people in this country.”
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“But after Tuesday s results in Georgia, keeping Democratic control of the United States Senate in a tie vote, Bernie and I agreed … we can’t put the control of the Senate at risk on the outcome of a special election in Vermont,” Biden continued.
The Hill has reached out to Sanders s office for comment.
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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.