Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer have been calling on Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office, and have threatened that the House will move forward on articles of impeachment if not done. Meanwhile, the chamber’s top Republican warned of dividing the country further.
Pelosi told fellow Democrats on Friday that they needed to address the “danger posed by Trump.” In a letter to House Democrats released by her office, Pelosi called Trump “unhinged,” and said she’d spoken with General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, about “available precautions for preventing an unstable president from initiating military hostilities or accessing the launch codes and ordering a nuclear strike.” Pelosi was told there were safeguards in place to prevent a nuclear launch, said a person who listened to the call.
The documents of impeachment have already been drafted, but in a conference call Friday with House Democrats Pelosi didn’t say whether she’s made a decision about proceeding, according to a story by Bloomburg They report that people who listened in on the call say she’s waiting to get a response from Pence and indicated she planned to talk with President-elect Joe Biden to get his view on next steps, this according to one of the people, who asked to remain anonymous because the call was private.
Biden is avoiding the discussion of removing Trump from office. “I’m not going to speak to that today,” he said at the start of event on Thursday, referring to calls by Democrats for Trump’s cabinet to use the 25th Amendment.
Biden spokesman Andrew Bates said later Thursday that the president-elect and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris were “focused on their duty” to prepare to take office, and would “leave it to Vice President Pence, the Cabinet and the Congress to act as they see fit.”
