An impeachment vote could happen by next week if the 25th Amendment is not invoked, House Democrat says
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her leadership team ran through their options Thursday night and the overwhelming sentiment was impeachment was the way forward, according to multiple sources. While there were some dissenters concerned that the move could be perceived as an overreach and turn off Trump supporters in their districts, the view among most top Democrats — including Pelosi — is that Trump should be held accountable for his actions.
This process is not going to be anything like 2019. This would be fast: No investigations and no weeks-long hearings. The most likely scenario is that a member brings a privileged resolution to the House floor and offers it during session.
That would not mean he would be removed from office, which would require the Senate to vote to do so.
House Judiciary Committee aides are consulting with the authors of one of the Democratic impeachment resolutions — Reps. David Cicilline, Jamie Raskin and Ted Lieu — in order to prepare for moving quickly to a potential impeachment vote on the House floor next week, according to three sources.
The aides are helping to edit and fine-tune the impeachment resolution, the sources said, which includes an article of impeachment for abuse of power, charging that Trump incited the insurrection at the Capitol. The impeachment resolution introduced Thursday also includes Trump’s call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, but some moderate members are urging that impeachment should be kept as straightforward as possible in order to keep focus on Wednesday’s events.
What to watch
This is moving fast. Members weren’t in this place two days ago. The events of Wednesday, the images that have played across television screens, the accounts of what happened throughout the Capitol complex and the President’s approach to all of it before and after have all culminated in members feeling like something has to happen now. Pelosi said it Thursday at her presser, members have been texting her nonstop “impeach, impeach.”
More than 60 Democrats, led by Reps. Dean Phillips of Minnesota, Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida and Tom Malinowski of New Jersey, sent a letter to Democratic leaders Friday asking they reconvene and work to impeach Trump following Wednesday’s Capitol breach.
“We write to ask respectfully that the House reconvene immediately to reckon with the assault on our democracy that we experienced on January 6th,” the Democrats wrote. “We could take up the question of whether President Trump should be censured 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 by the 25th Amendment, to determine whether the President is fit to discharge the powers and duties of his office.
House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, a California Democrat who led the House’s impeachment inquiry against Trump in 2019 over his efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate President-elect Joe Biden in the early stages of the 2020 campaign, said in a statement Friday he supported removing Trump through the 25th Amendment or impeachment.
“Every day that he remains in office, he is a danger to the Republic, and he should leave office immediately, through resignation, the 25th Amendment or impeachment,” Schiff said.
What would happen in the Senate
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has not spoken on this. But given that the House would likely pass this with just days left in Trump’s Presidency, it’s likely McConnell would just run out the clock.
Sen. Ben Sasse, the Nebraska Republican who was an early critic of Trump’s election fraud rhetoric, told CBS Morning News he’d consider any articles of impeachment from the House.
“The House, if they come together and have a process, I will definitely consider whatever articles they might move because, as I’ve told you, I believe the President has disregarded his oath of office,” Sasse said Friday.
This story has been updated with additional developments Friday.
CNN’s Daniella Diaz, Rachel Janfaza and Phil Mattingly contributed to this report.
