Moves are once again underfoot to impeach US President, Donald Trump, following the storming of the Capitol by his supporters last week.
According to Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and a member of the Democratic Party, the House would seek to try impeach the President unless he resigned immediately.
According to sources in the Democratic Party an article of impeachment against Trump could be ready as early as today, with the grounds for his removal being ‘incitement to insurrection’. Comments the President made before and after the riots around the Capitol were interpreted by many as giving support and encouragement to those who attacked the legislative seat of the American government.
However, other opponents of Trump have been more lukewarm on removing the President, either through impeachment or through invoking the 25th Amendment, which would allow the Cabinet to strip the President of his power, especially given that Trump has just over a week left in office.
President-Elect Joe Biden was quoted as saying: ‘If we were six months out, we should be doing everything to get him out of office, impeaching him again, trying to invoke the 25th amendment, whatever it took to get him out of office. But I am focused now on us taking control . . . on [January] 20th.’
Mike Pence, Trump’s Vice President, is reportedly not in favour of invoking the 25th Amendment. However, sources indicate that Pence and the Cabinet are operating under a de facto 25th Amendment, and simply ignoring the President.
Given that the Trump Administration has little over a week left it is unlikely that the President will be formally removed through either mechanism.