- Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said she believed President Donald Trump should be impeached because “every minute” he remains in office “represents a clear and present danger” to Congress and the country.
- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House could propose Trump’s impeachment this week if Vice President Mike Pence does not respond to calls from the House to invoke the 25th Amendment.
- “It is an act of insurrection. It is an act of hostility,” said Ocasio-Cortez. “And we must take responsibility because, without it, it will happen again.”
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Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said she believes President Donald Trump should be impeached due to the siege of the Capitol because “every minute” he spends in office “represents a clear and present danger.”
Ocasio-Cortez appeared on a Sunday segment of “This Week” with ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos, where she said she believed the impeachment should be scheduled for the president.
“Our top priority is to ensure the removal of Donald Trump as president of the United States,” said Ocasio-Cortez on Sunday. “Every minute and every hour he is in office represents a clear and present danger, not just for the United States Congress, but frankly for the country.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wrote in a letter obtained by CNN that the impeachment process could begin as early as this week if Vice President Mike Pence does not respond to calls to invoke the 25th Amendment, which would allow the vice president and some members of Trump’s cabinet to depose the president.
In addition to dismissing the president, Ocasio-Cortez said the House is also considering Trump’s “total ban” from “running for office forever” and to prevent him from “forgiving himself for the charges for which he was impeachment”, she said during the interview.
—This week (@ThisWeekABC) January 10, 2021
Some Republican lawmakers wrote a letter to President-elect Joe Biden, asking him to formally request that Pelosi and the House stop their search for Trump’s impeachment a second time “in the spirit of healing and fidelity to our Constitution”.
The New York Congresswoman said the “healing process” does not require the cancellation of a potential impeachment, but “accountability”.
“We need to understand that what happened on Wednesday was an insurrection against the United States,” said Ocasio-Cortez. “This is what Donald J. Trump was involved in, and this is what those people on Capitol were engaged in. So when we talk about healing, the healing process is separate and, in fact, requires responsibility.”
“So if we allow the uprising against the United States with impunity – without accountability – we will be inviting it to happen again. This is very serious, ”she said. “Perhaps my colleagues were not in that room, perhaps my colleagues were not fully present at Wednesday’s events, but almost half of the Chamber almost died on Wednesday.”
Ocasio-Cortez said that if another head of state had “ordered an attack” on Congress, “then lawmakers would not allow it to remain unanswered and therefore Wednesday’s siege of the Capitol should not be treated in this way.
“It is an act of insurrection. It is an act of hostility,” she said. “And we must take responsibility because, without it, it will happen again.”
—This week (@ThisWeekABC) January 10, 2021