© Provided by Washington Examiner House Speaker Nancy Pelosi thinks lawmakers can impeach and remove President Trump within 13 days if Vice President Mike Pence does not invoke the 25th Amendment.
During the Democratic leader's weekly presser, the California Democrat explained to reporters that the president must be held accountable for inciting sedition as a result of the mob chaos from pro-Trump supporters who gained access to the capitol on Wednesday while Congress debated the certification of contested states in the Electoral College.
House Democrats impeached the president last year after a monthslong investigation, spearheaded by the Intelligence Committee, focused on a phone call the president had with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The Republican majority Senate voted not to remove him.
The Constitution's 25th Amendment was ratified in 1967 and governs presidential succession. Its purpose relates to the transfer of power from an incapacitated president, and the amendment states the vice president can declare the president is "unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office."
Additionally, the amendment says Congress can appoint a group in place of the Cabinet to make this declaration as well.
"It's a simple matter. In terms of the Constitution, the vice president, working with the Cabinet, more than 50% of the Cabinet, can immediately improve the security of our country." Speaker Pelosi told reporters, adding that Maryland Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin passed legislation back in October that enabled another step in the 25th Amendment process.
"By inciting sedition as he did yesterday, he must be removed from office. While it's only 13 days left, any day can be a horror show for America. So, the next step would be that Congress, and this can be done quickly, can establish a commission very fast, of maybe former presidents and of Cabinet people who would know something about the health of the president and the rest," Pelosi explained.
"That group can make its recommendations to the Congress, and the list goes on. Having said that, the best route, the most immediate route, would be the vice president to recognize the danger of the Donald Trump presidency and take this act," she said.
Pelosi went on to say that her members are interested in impeachment, but she has not heard back from the vice president just yet.
"I don't think that it'll take long to get an answer from the vice president. It will be yes, or it will be no. The new majority leader of the Senate [Chuck Schumer] and I have made our interest in this known, so we'll see what they come back with," she said. "But they have to answer for it, and in answering for whether they're prepared to do that, they are answering for the behavior of Donald Trump."
Tags: News, Nancy Pelosi, Donald Trump, Impeachment, Congress
Original Author: Kerry Picket
Original Location: Pelosi bets there's enough time to remove Trump by Jan. 20