WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is calling for President Donald Trump to be immediately removed from office.
Schumer said Congress has two options to quickly remove Trump from the White House – the 25th Amendment or impeachment.
“The quickest and most effective way – it can be done today – to remove this president from office would be for the vice president to immediately invoke the 25th Amendment. If the vice president and the cabinet refuse to stand up, Congress should reconvene to impeach the president,” wrote Schumer in a statement released Thursday morning.
Schumer’s call for impeachment comes a day after extremist supporters of the president violently stormed the U.S. Capitol as Congress was certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory.
“What happened at the U.S. Capitol yesterday was an insurrection against the United States, incited by the president. This president should no longer hold office one day longer,” wrote Schumer.
The insurgence led to a lockdown and delayed the process by several hours, but the House and Senate did confirm Biden’s win early Thursday morning and Trump said in a statement that there would be a peaceful transition of power. Though, he hasn't conceded.
Schumer, who will soon be the Senate majority leader, is not alone in calling for Trump to be ousted before Inauguration Day on Jan. 20. A growing bipartisan group of lawmakers in both the House and Senate are calling for either impeachment or the 25th Amendment to be invoked.
Rep. Ilhan Omar was among the first to renew calls for impeachment. Amid the chaos in Washington on Wednesday, the progressive Democrat said she was drawing up articles of impeachment against Trump, though she didn’t specify what charge(s). This would be the second time Trump faced impeachment. He was already impeached by the House in 2019 for obstruction of Congress and abuse of power. However, the Senate acquitted him of those charges in early 2020.
Meanwhile, more than a dozen Democrats and at least one Republican representative are publicly calling on Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment. In order to invoke the25th Amendment, a majority of the 15 Cabinet Secretaries and the Vice President would need to agree and send formal documents to Congress for consideration and approval.
The amendment reads, “Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.”
