Removing Trump by 25th Amendment could set 'very dangerous' standard: Turley
Fox News contributor Jonathan Turley tells 'Fox & Friends' invoking the 25th Amendment could easily be abused.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer on Thursday said Vice President Pence should "immediately" invoke the 25th Amendment and remove President Trump from office, while warning that if he refuses, Congress should "impeach the president."
"What happened at the U.S. Capitol yesterday was an insurrection against the United States, incited by the president," Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement Thursday. "This president should not hold office one day longer."
"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," Schumer continued. "If the vice president and the Cabinet refuse to stand up, Congress should reconvene to impeach the president."
Schumer’s statement comes after a number of congressional Democrats on Wednesday urged Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment.
TRUMP PROMISES 'ORDERLY TRANSITION' ON JAN. 20 AFTER ELECTORAL COLLEGE RESULTS CERTIFIED
The 25th Amendment includes a section allowing the vice president and a majority of Cabinet members to declare a president "unable" to perform the job.
A Trump administration official told Fox News on Thursday that Pence has not been involved in any 25th Amendment conversations.
Another source who has been in direct contact with several Cabinet members told Fox News that there has been no discussion.
Meanwhile, Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., said she was "drawing up articles of impeachment."
"Donald J. Trump should be impeached by the House of Representatives & removed from office by the United States Senate," she tweeted. "We can’t allow him to remain in office, it’s a matter of preserving our Republic and we need to fulfill our oath."
The calls for Trump’s removal come after the president spoke at a rally Wednesday, telling supporters that he would "never concede," and repeated unsubstantiated claims that the election was "stolen" from him and that he won in a "landslide."
During his remarks, he renewed pressure on Pence, claiming that he should decertify the results of the presidential election and send it "back to the states," claiming that if he did that, Trump would be president for another four years.
Trump’s remarks came ahead of a joint session of Congress to certify the results of the presidential election. As members of the House and Senate raised objections to certain electoral votes, both chambers called for a recess and left their chambers as pro-Trump protesters breached the Capitol building.
Washington, D.C., police said the security breach at the Capitol resulted in four deaths – including a woman who had been shot inside the building – and at least 70 arrests.
Congress later returned and certified the Electoral College vote early Thursday, formally giving Joe Biden his presidential victory.
White House deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino posted a statement from the president on Twitter early Thursday morning, saying: "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."
"I have always said we would continue our fight to ensure that only legal votes were counted," Trump said. "While this represents the end of the greatest first term in presidential history, it's only the beginning of our fight to Make America Great Again!"
Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, said there will be an extension of the public emergency for the next 15 days, which is slated to run through Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20.
The House voted to impeach Trump in December 2019, but the Senate acquitted him on both articles of impeachment – abuse of power and obstruction of Congress – in February 2020.
The House impeachment inquiry began after the president, during a phone call in July 2019, pressed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, to look into Biden’s role pressing for the ouster of a Ukrainian prosecutor who had been investigating the founder of Burisma Holdings – a Ukrainian natural gas firm where his son, Hunter, sat on the board.
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Trump's pressure campaign against Ukraine prompted a whistleblower complaint, and, in turn, the impeachment inquiry.
The president’s request came after millions in U.S. military aid to Ukraine had been frozen, which Democrats cited as a quid pro quo arrangement.
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