In a letter sent late on Sunday, Nancy Pelosi confirmed that the coming week will be focused entirely on removing Trump out of office, when she informed colleagues that the House will pass a resolution calling on Pence to invoke the 25th amendment. This will be followed by impeachment.
Her full letter below:
Dear Democratic Colleague,
On this Sunday, as we pray that God will continue to Bless America, I write to inform you of our next actions, which will be made with the great solemnity that this moment requires.
I want to call to your immediate attention the action to be taken tomorrow morning, when Majority Leader Hoyer will request Unanimous Consent to bring up the Raskin resolution. This resolution calls on the Vice President to convene and mobilize the Cabinet to activate the 25th Amendment to declare the President incapable of executing the duties of his office, after which the Vice President would immediately exercise powers as acting President. The text of the resolution can be found here.
If we do not receive Unanimous Consent, this legislation is planned to be brought up on the Floor the following day. We are calling on the Vice President to respond within 24 hours.
Next, we will proceed with bringing impeachment legislation to the Floor.
In protecting our Constitution and our Democracy, we will act with urgency, because this President represents an imminent threat to both. As the days go by, the horror of the ongoing assault on our democracy perpetrated by this President is intensified and so is the immediate need for action.
I look forward to our Caucus call tomorrow. I am grateful to all Members for the suggestions, observations and input that you have been sending. Your views on the 25th Amendment, 14th Amendment Section 3 and impeachment are valued as we continue. I am answering your communications in chronological order and will do so into the night.
Thank you for your patriotism.
Prayerfully,
In other words, the second impeachment of Trump will begin on Tuesday if Pence refuses to invoke the 25th amendment, for which Pelosi has given the VP 24 hours.
NEW: Nancy Pelosi confirms that the (second) impeachment is on. pic.twitter.com/532Ipnpvo3
— Lewis Goodall (@lewis_goodall) January 10, 2021
There are just a few caveats: as the Constitution Center explains, to forcibly wrest power from Trump, Vice President Mike Pence would have to be on board, according to the text of the amendment. Pence would also need either a majority of Trump’s Cabinet officials to agree the President is unfit for office and temporarily seize power from him. Neither is very likely.
Next, Trump could dispute their move with a letter to Congress. Pence and the Cabinet would then have four days to dispute him, Congress would then vote — it requires a two-thirds supermajority, usually 67 senators and 290 House members to permanently remove him. This too is unlikely.
Congress could also appoint its own body to review the President’s fitness instead of the Cabinet. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, during the last Congress, introduced a bill to create a congressional body for this purpose, but it was not signed into law.
Democratic efforts to impeach President Trump for a second time are well underway, with a senior Democratic lawmaker telling Bloomberg that a House vote on articles of impeachment could come as soon as Tuesday, which would then be held for several months before they send them to the Senate in order to avoid triggering an immediate trial.
According to House Majority Whip James Clyburn, Democrats are “working hard” on an article of impeachment which demonstrates that Trump is “unqualified to be president.”
“I think that will come probably Tuesday and maybe Wednesday,” Clyburn told “Fox News Sunday.”
Meanwhile, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi gave Trump an ultimatum last week; resign immediately, or face impeachment 2.0 for encouraging supporters to march on Capitol Hill last Wednesday – when a mostly peaceful protest against the counting of Electoral College votes turned into what the left is calling an ‘insurrection’ after law enforcement oddly opened the doors to the building, allowing protesters to ‘storm’ the Capitol.
Capitol police open doors for the protestors. They stand aside and invite them inside. pic.twitter.com/OnSd3KGzz5
— Christina Bobb (@christina_bobb) January 8, 2021
According to Bloomberg, Pelosi is moving cautiously despite internal pressure from her caucus to punish Trump – while President-elect Joe Biden has made clear that he isn’t interested in a Trump impeachment sideshow while his administration is trying to focus on their agenda. Pelosi has told lawmakers to be “prepared to return to Washington” this week for a potential impeachment vote or some other type of formal response to Trump’s alleged role in encouraging the breach on Capitol hill that left five people dead (despite the fact that he told supporters to peacefully assemble and to peacefully leave following the incident).
According to Clyburn, however, any successful impeachment in the House could be held for 100 days or more to avoid upstaging Biden.
“Let’s give President-elect Biden the 100 days he needs to get his agenda off and running, and maybe we’ll send the articles some time after that,” he said.
At least 195 House Democrats have signed on to one of the impeachment articles, and some Republicans have said they believe Trump conduct is impeachable, although they question how the process would play out with less than two weeks left in his term.
In a letter to fellow Democrats Saturday, Pelosi stopped short of saying she intended to move forward with impeachment or another process aimed at removing Trump from office before his term expires on Jan. 20, yet she insisted that he be held responsible in some fashion. –Bloomberg
“It is absolutely essential that those who perpetrated the assault on our democracy be held accountable,” said Pelosi in a Saturday letter. “There must be a recognition that this desecration was instigated by the president.”
Meanwhile, a small group of House Republicans led by Colorado Rep. Ken Buck are trying to encourage Biden to persuade Pelosi to back off a Trump impeachment – warning in a Saturday letter that doing so would inflame Trump supporters and derail Biden’s plans to ‘unify the country’ (as social media giants engage in politically-driven cancel spree against Trump and his supporters).
As far as Trump leaving office now? Biden suggests letting the presidential transition occur so his administration can “get our agenda moving as quickly as we can.”
“It’s important we get on with the business getting him out of office. The quickest way that that will happen is us being sworn in on the 20th,” Biden said during a Wilmington, Delaware press conference last week. “I am focused now on us taking control as president and vice president on the 20th, and to get our agenda moving as quickly as we can.”