Published 12:41 IST, January 10th 2021
Nancy Pelosi asks lawmakers to 'return to Washington this week' to impeach Trump
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi asserted that it was ‘absolutely essential’ that those who perpetrated the assault on American democracy were held accountable.
US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) joined Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer as she called for the Democrats to 'prepare' for action if the US President Donald Trump did not resign. Speaking at a state press conference, Pelosi said that she has directed lawmakers to be "prepared to move forward" with impeachment. The Democrats are most likely to introduce articles of impeachment on January 11 following the President's incitement of supporters' siege of the US Capitol building.
Lawmakers at both sides of the aisle held Trump responsible for the Capitol building insurrection. In a letter to the Democrats, cited by multiple US broadcasters, House Speaker Pelosi asserted that it was ‘absolutely essential’ that those who perpetrated the assault on American democracy were held accountable. Furthermore, she stressed that there had to be and must be a ‘recognition’ that the desecration was “instigated by the president.” At the news conference, Pelosi said that she will consult the Constitutional experts and the lawmakers to initiate the appropriate channel of action whether impeachment or another legal process to remove Trump from office ahead of his term that expires Jan. 20. “Prepared to return to Washington this week,” she told Congress.
Pelosi 'instructed' Rules Committee
US lawmakers agreed that it was “dangerous” to leave Trump in office until President-elect Joe Biden’s was inaugurated as the next President of the US on Jan. 20. They called on the Vice President and executive branch to take immediate actions. “It is the hope of Members that the President will immediately resign,” the California Democrat told the presser. “But if he does not, I have instructed the Rules Committee to be prepared to move forward with Congressman Jamie Raskin’s 25th Amendment legislation and a motion for impeachment,” she added.
Following the Capitol siege, the US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pushed for evoking the 25th Amendment against POTUS. Pelosi weighed in for a Democratic effort to impeach the 45th, saying that the “dangerous person should not continue in office.” She called on the US Vice President Mike Pence to initiate Trump’s removal, citing, that the Republican leader [Trump] was a seditious threat to the country and his dismissal was more integral than ever to uphold American democracy and fair electoral transition. “This is (an) emergency of the highest magnitude," US House Speaker asserted.
Updated 12:42 IST, January 10th 2021