House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said Democrats will proceed with impeachment proceedings if the US vice president refuses to declare Donald Trump unfit for office.
US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Sunday that she was ready to begin the second impeachment proceedings against US President Donald Trump if his cabinet fails to remove him from office under the 25th Amendment.
The Democratic lawmaker said that the House will try to pass legislation on Monday urging Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment and “declare the president incapable of executing the duties of his office.”
If that fails — which is considered the most likely outcome — Pelosi said that the House would move ahead with impeachment proceedings, although she did not say when that would be.
“In protecting our Constitution and our Democracy, we will act with urgency, because this President represents an imminent threat to both,” the House speaker said.
While the Democrats aimed to swiftly proceed with impeachment, they were planning to delay the trial until after President-elect Joe Biden had had time to focus on other priorities after inauguration.
“Let’s give President-elect Biden the 100 days he needs to get his agenda off and running,” Representative Jim Clyburn said.
Democrats eager to impeach
California Congressman Ted Lieu said Saturday that he hoped Vice President Mike Pence would invoke the 25th Amendment or Democrats would introduce an article of impeachment against US President Donald Trump on Monday.
“All of us, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, will prefer that Donald Trump simply do the right thing and resign, or that Vice President Mike Pence actually shows some spine, at least for himself and his own family and invoke the 25th Amendment,” the Democrat told CNN.
“If none of that happens, then on Monday, we will introduce the article of impeachment, which is incitement to insurrection, and we do expect a floor vote this coming week,” Lieu added.
Lieu tweeted Saturday that there were 180 co-sponsors of the article of impeachment, although it looked far from certain whether enough Republicans would back the move with just days left in his term.
“There will be Republicans who do vote for it,” he insisted, adding that he is in talks with some Republicans to co-sponsor the resolution.