WASHINGTON (AP) – Two Republican senators now say President Donald Trump should resign, as support for impeachment for the second time is gaining momentum in his final days in office, following the deadly Capitol riot by a violent crowd of supporters of Trump.
Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania on Sunday joined Alaskan Senator Lisa Murkowski to ask Trump to “resign and leave as soon as possible”. Murkowski, who has long expressed his exasperation at Trump’s conduct in office, told the Anchorage Daily News on Friday that Trump simply “needs to leave.”
Toomey said that while he believes Trump committed impeachable offenses by encouraging legalists in the Capitol siege on Wednesday, he doesn’t think there was enough time for the impeachment process to end. Toomey said that dismissal was the “best way to go, the best way to put that person in the rearview mirror for us”. He was not optimistic that Trump would step down before the end of his term on January 20.
The White House did not immediately comment on Sunday.
The Chamber seems determined to act, despite the short term.
Late Saturday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Sent a letter to her colleagues reiterating that Trump should be held responsible. She told her caucus, now spread across the country in a two-week break, to “be prepared to return to Washington this week.”
“It is absolutely essential that those who perpetrated the attack on our democracy be held accountable,” wrote Pelosi. “There must be an acknowledgment that this desecration was instigated by the president.”
Representative Jim Clyburn, the House’s third Democrat, said “it could be Tuesday, Wednesday before the action is taken, but I think it will be done this week.” Clyburn, DS.C., said he feared a Senate trial could divert attention from the process of confirming President-elect Joe Biden’s nominees.
Clyburn said one option could be to give Biden the “100 days he needs to start his agenda and we may send the articles some time after that” to the Senate for a trial.
He said that lawmakers “will take the vote that we must take in the House” and that Pelosi “will make the determination of when the best time is” to send them to the Senate.
Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, said an impeachment trial could begin as soon as he takes office on January 20.
The new Democratic effort to stamp Trump’s presidential record – for the second time and days before his term ends – with the indelible mark of impeachment is gaining supporters. Congressman David Cicilline, DR.I, leader of the House’s effort to draft impeachment articles – or accusations – accusing Trump of inciting insurrection, said on Saturday that his group had grown to include 185 co-sponsors.
Lawmakers plan to formally present the proposal to the House on Monday, where the impeachment articles should originate.
The articles, if approved by the House, could be transmitted to the Senate for a trial, with senators acting as jurors who would ultimately vote whether to absolve or condemn Trump. If convicted, Trump would be removed from office and succeeded by the vice president.
Potentially complicating this impeachment decision is what it means for Biden and the beginning of his presidency. In reiterating that he has long seen Trump as unfit for the job, Biden on Friday avoided an impeachment issue, saying that what Congress does “is for them to decide.”
A violent and largely white crowd of Trump supporters dominated the police, breached security lines and invaded the Capitol on Wednesday, forcing lawmakers to disperse as they put the finishing touches on Biden’s victory over Trump in high school Electoral.
The crowd rushed to the vaulted symbol of American democracy after a rally near the White House, where Trump repeated his false claims that the election was stolen from him and urged his supporters to march hard towards the Capitol.
Five people, including a Capitol police officer, died as a result of the siege.
The outrage over the attack and Trump’s role in inciting him culminated in a divisive and chaotic presidency like few in the country’s history. Trump has less than two weeks to step down, but Democrats have made it clear that they don’t want to wait that long.
Trump, has few Republican colleagues speaking in his defense. He is becoming increasingly isolated, holed up in the White House as he was abandoned after the rebellion by many aides, Republican leaders and, so far, two Cabinet members – both women.
Toomey appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union” and NBC’s “Meet the Press”. Clyburn was on Fox News Sunday and CNN.
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Superville reported in Wilmington, Delaware. Associated Press editors Alexandra Jaffe, Lisa Mascaro and Zeke Miller contributed to this report.