WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump has less than two weeks left in office, but his response to and role in Wednesday’s violent storming of the U.S. Capitol has unleashed a new round of calls for his removal – even from within his own party.
Among the tools being touted: impeachment (again), invoking the 25th Amendment and even charges of insurrection or sedition.
“There is real cause for alarm here,” said Deepak Gupta, a Harvard University lecturer and attorney who specializes in constitutional law. “For the next couple of weeks, this unhinged person is formally, legally the commander of the armed forces, and there’s really no telling what he might do.”
Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a military veteran and Trump critic, called the president “unfit” and “unwell” on Thursday and endorsed invoking the 25th Amendment to transfer power to Vice President Mike Pence.
“I think yesterday it became clear that the president is unmoored from reality and from his oath,” Kinzinger told MSNBC Thursday. He said he hasn’t “ruled out” impeachment, a step several House Democrats also support.
But while there are seemingly many options for ousting Trump – and, critics say, many reasons for doing so – Gupta and others say most would be a stretch to pull off, particularly since he is headed for the exits anyway.
“I think we’ve got to hold our breath for the next 20 days,” Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, another prominent Trump critic, told reporters on Wednesday evening after the Capitol had been secured.
Trump’s allies dismissed the fresh chatter as nonsense and rejected allegations that Trump’s rhetoric helped stoke Wednesday’s attack on Congress. After the House and Senate formalized President-elect Joe Biden’s win in the Nov. 3 election early Thursday, Trump released a statement committing to a peaceful transfer of power.
“Even though I totally disagree with the outcome of the election, and the facts bear me out, nevertheless there will be an orderly transition on January 20th,” Trump’s statement said.
But lawmakers in both parties say Trump incited the mob violence that unfolded at the Capitol, in which pro-Trump rioters breached security, ransacked the building and nearly derailed the Electoral College count to formalize Biden’s win.
It was an explicit use of violence “to coerce a political outcome” that Trump and his supporters failed to achieve through the democratic process, said Michel Paradis, an adjunct professor at Columbia University law school and a senior attorney for the Department of Defense.
Trump has repeatedly sought to undermine the 2020 election results with false claims of election fraud and on Wednesday, he encouraged his supporters to “stop the steal” in a speech before they marched to the Capitol.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Thursday called Trump “a very dangerous person who should not continue in office.“ The California Democrat said the president’s Cabinet members should remove Trump from power, and she threatened impeachment if they do not act quickly.
Meanwhile, the head of one of the country’s most powerful business lobbies accused Trump of inciting Wednesday’s violence in an attempt to retain power and said Pence should consider triggering the 25th amendment to the Constitution to preserve democracy.
“This is sedition and should be treated as such,” said Jay Timmons, the president and CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers.
But is it realistic to think Trump will be ousted before the Jan. 20 inauguration of his successor?
Here’s a rundown of the avenues for removal – and a reality check on their possible use:
25th Amendment
The amendment, ratified in 1967, created a legal mechanism for designating a head of state when the president is disabled or dead. It also formalized the historical practice for the vice president to permanently take over if the president dies or resigns, and gives the president and Congress shared power to replace a vice president.
