House Democrats consider mid-week a possible vote on Trump’s second impeachment

House Democrats consider mid-week a possible vote on Trump’s second impeachment

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her leadership team analyzed their options on Thursday night and the overwhelming feeling was that impeachment was the way forward, according to several sources. While there were some dissenters concerned that the move could be seen as overkill and alienating Trump supporters in their districts, the view among most Democrats – including Pelosi – is that Trump should be held responsible for his actions.

This process will be nothing like 2019. That would be fast: without investigations and without hearings for weeks. The most likely scenario is for a member to bring a privileged resolution to the plenary of the Chamber and offer it during the session.

This requires majority leader Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, to bring members back, which people hope will be announced sometime after the ET midday caucus is called. Once they do, the voting process will start in a matter of days. A simple majority is sufficient to accuse the president. If they do, Trump will be the first president to be impeached twice.

This would not mean that he would be removed from office, which would require the Senate to vote to do so.

Trump's desperate attempt to save his presidency by imploding

Advisers to the House Judiciary Committee are consulting with the authors of one of the Democratic impeachment resolutions – Representatives David Cicilline, Jamie Raskin and Ted Lieu – to prepare to move quickly towards a potential impeachment vote in the House plenary next week. , according to three sources.

Aides are helping to edit and adjust the impeachment resolution, the sources said, which includes an impeachment article for abuse of power, accusing Trump of inciting the Capitol insurrection. The impeachment resolution tabled on Thursday also includes Trump’s liaison with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, but some moderated members are calling for the impeachment to be kept as straightforward as possible to stay focused on Wednesday’s events. market.

What to watch

This is moving fast. The members had not been in this place for two days. Wednesday’s events, the images on television screens, reports of what happened throughout the Capitol complex, and the president’s approach to it all before and after, it all culminated in members feeling something has to happen now . Pelosi said on Thursday in his presser, members have been texting “impeach, impeach” over and over.

Deputy Katherine Clark of Massachusetts, the assistant president of the House, told John Berman of CNN on “New Day” on Friday that they could bring articles of impeachment to the floor “in the middle of next week”. She tweeted later that Democrats were “actively working” to find the fastest timetable for a vote.
Calls grow in Congress for Trump to be removed on impeachment or the 25th Amendment
This is not just Congressman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the liberals calling for impeachment. There were notable comments on Thursday from Rep. Elissa Slotkin, a Michigan moderate who did not vote for Pelosi as a speaker for less than a week, who pushed for the 25th Amendment. Virginia Abigail Spanberger, of Virginia, also issued a statement pushing for the 25th Amendment, but saying: “If the vice president fails to act, it will be necessary for all members of Congress bound by our constitutional oaths to take further action. If we refuse to respond to a US president who incites an uprising against our democracy, we risk losing it forever. ”

More than 60 Democrats, led by Representatives Dean Phillips of Minnesota, Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida and Tom Malinowski of New Jersey, sent a letter to Democratic leaders on Friday asking them to meet again and work to prosecute Trump after violating the Capitol on Wednesday.

“We wrote to respectfully ask the House to meet immediately to face the attack on our democracy that we experienced on January 6,” wrote the Democrats. “We could raise the question of whether President Trump should be censored or impeached for encouraging a violent attack on the United States Congress, as well as Representative Raskin’s proposal that Congress appoint a body, as provided for in the 25th Amendment, to determine if the President is able to fulfill the powers and duties of his office.

Intelligence Chamber President Adam Schiff, a California Democrat who led the House’s impeachment investigation against Trump in 2019 for his efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate President-elect Joe Biden in the early stages of the 2020 campaign, said in a statement on Friday that supported the removal of Trump through the 25th Amendment or impeachment.

“Every day that he remains in office, he is a danger to the Republic, and he must step down immediately, through resignation, the 25th Amendment or impeachment,” said Schiff.

What would happen in the Senate

Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell did not speak about this. But given that the House would probably approve of that with Trump’s presidency just a few days away, McConnell is likely to simply run out of time.

The GOP is frustrated, exasperated by Trump right now. CNN reported that minority leader in the House, Kevin McCarthy, had a screaming fight on Wednesday with Trump as protesters stormed the Capitol building. But McConnell likes to avoid intra-party struggles and forcing members to vote for impeachment when Trump’s presidency is only a few days away would not be a good way to keep his members together.

Senator Ben Sasse, the Nebraska Republican who was one of the first critics of Trump’s electoral fraud rhetoric, told CBS Morning News that he would consider any impeachment article from the House.

“The Chamber, if they meet and have a lawsuit, I will definitely consider any articles that they can propose because, as I told you, I believe the President disregarded his term of office,” said Sasse on Friday.

This story was updated with further developments on Friday.

CNN’s Daniella Diaz, Rachel Janfaza and Phil Mattingly contributed to this report.

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